Doing The Laundry Poem by Margaret O Driscoll

A regular task
Almost elbow-deep in suds
Steam rising from the tub
A bar of Sunlight soap
Vigorous rubbing of clothes
between reddened thumbs
Shirt collars scrubbed
Then wringing out to rinse

Whites bubbling on the boil
The magic smell of clean
Laundry pegged out on the line
Whipped up in a breeze
Starched tablecloth
Flapping to and fro
Drying in the sun
Warm laundry taken off the line

Creases ironed
Sheets smoothed
Stacked neatly in a press
Bygone rituals of orderliness