Wash House and Coal Shed by Mike Crowl
| Cracked wood windowsills. Soaked sacks of blue lean snug-cornered, warmed against the window glass; sunlight slinks round shrugged-shoulder curves; sunbeams on wood beams light motes that pass. Raw-elbowed arms chuck clothes frozen in the tubs; mangle chokes torsos, loins, breasts and necks; sun strikes the face poles from thick-socked foot frosts; cane-wickered basket creaks.
Bare throat-choking dwangs; |
Some explanation: the wash house and the coal shed were combined in one building at my childhood home. The area facing the door, along the back left wall, was where the coal lay; around to the right was a workbench, and beyond that the wash tubs and mangle.
Blue used to come in little cotton sacks and was used for whitening the clothes.