"Lord, this humble house we'd keep, sweet with play and calm with sleep. Help us so that we may give beauty to the lives we live. Let Thy bounty and Thy grace shine upon our dwelling place." E. A. Guest

Friday

Wash Day


ON A WINDY WASH DAY MORN

Soaked and scrubbed in a round tin tub
with homemade soap
up and down the ribs of a wooden washboard
by hands rubbed red & raw
on a windy wash day morn.

Stiffened with starch, squeezed
and wrung to a twisted laundry rope
then hung on lines to flap
back and forth and snap dry
on a windy wash day morn.

Laid on the lawn like paper cutouts
clean shirts and sheets, towels and skirts
smelling of sun and clouds and wind
wait to be ironed and worn and dirtied
again for another wash day morn.

~ Brenda Seabrooke, American poet and novelist

4 comments:

  1. Hello!

    I just found your blog and became a follower. What a lovely site you have here. :-)
    This post just reminds me how lucky I am to have a wash machine. I cannot imagine having to do the many mounds of laundry in this house by hand, lol. Have a delightful day!

    Blessings,
    Jill

    ReplyDelete
  2. Washing by hand is not as hard as one thinks. It is actually quite liberating...there is a sort of Zen quality behind the act.

    As always dear friend, inspiration abounds :-)

    Embrace His blessings today,

    Mrs. M.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ow,, Nice Post I read.. Love it..

    ReplyDelete