Laundry is Easy by John Muth

      Don Harder CC



Laundry is Easy


I do laundry for my parents
when mom is in the hospital
because dad never learned
and he never wears 
the same pair of sweatpants twice.

There is not much else to do.
I cannot shrink the tumor
nestled like a Japanese beetle
on her pancreas. 
I cannot find the words
to reassure my father
everything will turn out right
and mom will be 
that 5 or 7% they say 
make it to five years.

Love and sadness are hard to express
vulnerability is uncomfortable
but laundry is easy.
A machine does most of the work
and in only a couple of hours
what was once dirty
comes out clean and sweet-smelling
ready to be folded and put away
like a delusional feeling of accomplishment.

​

Bio: John Muth was born and raised in central New Jersey. For the last seventeen years, he has been 
an academic advisor, working for Rutgers University. His two collections, A Love for Lavender Dragons
and Reassure the Phoenix were published by Aldrich Press and can be found on Amazon.com.

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