Ruth Moose: "Laundry"

All our life
so much laundry;
each day’s doing or not
comes clean,
flows off and away
to blend with other sins
of this world. Each day
begins in new skin,
blessed by the elements
charged to take us
out again to do or undo
what’s been assigned.
From socks to shirts
the selves we shed
lift off the line
as if they own
a life apart
from the one we offer.
There is joy in clean laundry.
All is forgiven in water, sun
and air. We offer our day’s deeds
to the blue-eyed sky, with soap and prayer,
our arms up, then lowered in supplication.




"Laundry" by Ruth Moose, from Making the Bed. © Main Street Rag Press, 2004.

Art credit: "Doin' Laundry," oil painting by Mikki Senkarik (originally color).

Ruth Moose: "The Crossing"

The snail at the edge of the road
inches forward, a trim gray finger
of a fellow in pinstripe suit.
He’s burdened by his house
that has to follow
where he goes. Every inch,
he pulls together
all he is,
all he owns,
all he was given.

The road is wide
but he is called
by something
that knows him
on the other side.

"The Crossing" by Ruth Moose, from 75 Poems on Retirement, edited by Robin Chapman and Judith Strasser. © University of Iowa Press, 2007.

Photograph: Detail from "Snail Crossing," by Robin Loznak, 2012 (originally color).