SOL 2016 Day 6: The Solace of Daily Life

Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life March Challenge 2016

This March, more than 300 teachers have committed to daily writing. If you’d like to read more “slices” (from other teachers and even students), visit: twowritingteachers.wordpress.com/challenges.

Today still trying to cope with the news of my friend's illness, I have found myself relishing today's round of household chores. Washing dishes, grocery shopping, changing my sheets, doing laundry: these mundane tasks I often resent seem important to me today. 

They sooth me with their assurance that there is still some part of life not rocked by fear. 

I'm sure my friend would welcome the chance to choose the perfect apple or smell sheets fresh from the dryer. So I will do all these things for her, hoping that soon she will be at home again lying in her own bed. So this poem is for her:

The  Promise

Slide crisp sheets fresh from the wash,

snap the wrinkles out and let

the top one float gently to rest.

Smooth over corners,

tuck them in taut, clean folds.

Slap and fluff the pillows,

slip them into their cases

still unwrinkled from a sleeping head.

Dare to take a new journey.

Traverse the map of night

to descend streets of dreams,

as you lie on sheets

sweet smelling,

cool and soft as longing.