Saturday in May

The day has been more to my liking than some recent days. After a frost warning the last two nights, the dawn was at 40 degrees. That isn’t too bad unless you are preparing to go to a breakfast picnic! We discussed long underwear, but we decided to take our chances it would warm up some at least.

The group was diverse…friendly…and the food was wonderful!!! I had taken cheese grits last year and folks liked them. However, DH does not like grits. I took his favorite stuffed mushrooms. They were popular with the other eaters too! The mushrooms were added to bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits/gravy, sweet rolls, breakfast casserole, breakfast potatoes, spinach frittata, and more. No one left hungry!

By the time we got home, we were stuffed to the gills like a fancy trout. It got even better when I realized that there would be no lunch to fix. Then the sun came out and that meant we had ice tea with books on the deck! Ah, the joys of spring!

When the mailman came, he enhanced my day even more with a box of the new issues of Well Versed: Literary Works 2014. This is a work put out by the Missouri Chapter of the Missouri Writers’ Guild. It is full of writings that are gleaned from their annual writing contest. Not only did I get a kick from seeing my name on the CONTENTS, but I saw names I recognized from all over the state. Many of these writers I know only from their work or their blog pages. But still, it felt like seeing family when I looked over the work. Now to read all the pieces by other writers!

In the Preface, managing editor Linda Fisher wrote: “…it takes courage to submit your work anonymously to see if it will pass muster.”  She is so right. A writer drains herself by the conception of an idea, the pouring of it to the page, and then tossing it out there for possible condemnation from others. But then, a day like today comes…when one sees that someone else saw or felt the lines with appreciation and then preserved them for readers…well, it makes for a great day.

I had three poems in the issue, one was a Judge’s Pick. But the one about laundry on the line is the one I will share because I had such fun with it. Above all else including hard work, writing should be fun, don’t you think?

Line Dance 

Kansas sky lingers over my spotless laundry,
Pieces line up on Monday all the way to a denim horizon.
Prairie breeze rustles summer leaves and makes flags of kitchen towels.
My newly washed aprons on the clothesline wave unknotted ties
And trifle with the blazing sun overhead in their freedom.
My man’s overalls hear the seducing song of summer,
And they begin to dance, feetless legs flinging to and fro,
Shamelessly flirting with work shirts and bleached socks.
The dallying day exhausts them all of detergent and dampness;
By late afternoon in stilled air, they are tranquil and dry.
Unpegging them from the wire, I fold their crisp air smell away.
Garments rest in wicker-woven baskets, renewed by the outdoors
…until a new boogie on another dance day.