Domestic Interior

Keeping

Keeping Straightening the bed. Straightening the drapes. Righting the spilled cup of milk. Scrubbing the spot that it left. Hating the stain from the sticky juice, and the shoe left its dirt there too So it’s dark in the light carpet and it can be seen more clearly at night under ceiling lights. Polish the table, vacuum the crumbs. A peace inside, a war won. Lovely sound of water spreading through the dishwasher. Put the toys in the toy box. Put the toys out on the floor. Put on one shoe and then the other. Let the children out. Placing the wet laundry in the dryer. Folding the laundry. The delays of wet laundry. Days of wet laundry. Folding clothes for a quiet hour. Sweeping routinely; the crisis of something shattering. (shit) Mopping: the floor is now breathtaking. Sitting still, still sitting. Watching the children alive jumping in their limbs outside In the mown grass, inside the locked gates, safe here To scream, to dig deep, to furrow the toys of commerce (trucks, trains, bulldozers, cranes) through wet mud in Spring Climb loud screams and laughter And a cry so loud it hurts my ears run to me through the sliding glass I hold one until he’s done with his screaming I hold his body firmly against my own 69 I hold one and then the other who didn’t fall but needs the embraces to be evenly distributed between; Now he’s over it and wants to get down Now the other is over it and wants to get down The straightening of what they leave behind them as they run. 70 ...