[9] "Awkward Verbal Ogling of a Clothespin in a Public Place, or Springy Thing o' Mine"

Awkward Verbal Ogling of a Clothespin in a Public Place, or Springy Thing o’ Mine

by Deidre Price

For Emily Dickinson

You’re a springy thing

                         and you’re mine.

I’m springy, too, sometimes.

I see you’re red.

I get red, too, sometimes,

oh, springy thing o’ mine.

I bet you’ve held laundry on a line

                                                        or two?

Maybe even two at a time?

When I air my dirty laundry, I think of you,

Springy-thinged Valentine.

I hoist it all high.
I hoist it all mighty,

whether it be boxer

                                   or whitey tighty.

When they blow in a hard June breeze,

they sometimes fall

past knotty knees

and conjure a confession

like a habit on a head

and a surrender,

a pale flag over all these

forbidden words I’ve said.