Have my comments made them suspect their poems
need a good scrub?
When they were toddlers, did the surprise of the dryer buzzer
traumatize them?
Do they think their words are wrinkled as old apples,
Eden’s shadow over them all?
And what about the womb of the washer tub–
round and warm and pulsing?
Did their mothers insist on cleanliness – check their lunchboxes
after school for even one wary crumb?
Did their fathers pick them up and toss them in the air,
hands still dirty from the garden?
Maybe they’re worried they forgot to soften their words,
so their poems feel scratchy on their reader’s skin.
Do edits from their peers seem like ink stains
on their favorite coat?
Perhaps they’ve floated their baby poems
down a cleansing river, motherless poems,
hoping for a pharaoh’s daughter downstream.
Wondering Why Laundry Keeps Showing Up in Students’ Poems this Semester
Colette Tennant has three books of poetry: Commotion of Wings, Eden and After, and Sweet Gothic. Her book, Religion in The Handmaid’s Tale: a Brief Guide, was published in 2019 to coincide with Atwood’s publication of The Testaments. Her poems have won various awards and have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes along with being published in various journals, including Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Southern Poetry Review, and Poetry Ireland Review. Colette is an English and Humanities Professor who has also taught art in Great Britain, Germany, and Italy.