I am standing at the kitchen window,
camera in hand, watching for Bluebirds
a Cardinal perhaps, or a Cedar Waxwing.
I am standing like my mother has stood
these 70 years, her hands in dish water,
soapy with the long day’s end
of sighing over children.
She is standing in my mind
like her mother who would not
let the rinse water drain
because she never forgot
the labor of buckets hauled
in for the job.
Maytag does the work for me.
I stand here only to remember
the habits of long days’ end.
I stand here to learn something
I believe I should already know.
**Written today as a free write in response to the prompt “picture this,” which I used in giving a journaling workshop for the South Mississippi Writing Project.
