“Shirts and Sheets” by William Hoyt: Bright sunlight on drying laundry of a white sheet, a chambray shirt, a plaid shirt, and a red t-shirt hanging above a rush laundry basket.
Hands
“Shirts and Sheets” - William Hoyt
Hands hung shirts white, red, and plaid,
and sheets, one visible, on the line
on a summer’s day when the sun
is high and hot and dries as fast
as, if not faster than, any machine.
Hands hammered the crossbar
onto the pole still wearing the i.d.
of a company whose electricity
goes unused on a summer’s day
when the sun is high and hot.
Hands (perhaps the same) ran lines,
not of unneeded wire, but cord stretched taut,
so shirts and one visible sheet
could hang under a high and hot sun
above the daisy-sprinkled grass.
Hands wove the basket that dangles
on strong handles from the crossbar
nailed to the pole, now holding clothespins;
twining the cane in, out, in
and out and twisting the osier rim.
Hands (not the same) wove the large basket
that sits on the daisy-sprinkled grass,
waiting to be filled with folded shirts
and that one visible sheet,
when the sun is no longer high and hot.
Hands held a palette and a brush,
careful and sure, stroked oil-mixed pigment
onto canvas, and fixed forever the shirts,
the visible sheet, the pole, the cord and baskets,
and high, hot sun above the daisy-sprinkled grass.
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