Old Bedsheet Art by Anke
Folding the Sheets
by Rosemary Dobson
You and I will fold the sheets
Advancing towards each other
From Burma, from Lapland,
From India where the sheets have been washed in the river
And pounded upon stones:
Together we will match the corners.
From China where women on either side of the river
Have washed their pale cloth in the White Stone Shallows
“Under the shining moon”.
We meet as though in the formal steps of a dance
To fold the sheets together, put them to air
In wind, in sun over bushes, or by the fire.
We stretch and pull from one side and then the other –
Your turn. Now mine.
We fold them and put them away until they are needed.
A wish for all people when they lie down to sleep –
Smooth linen, cool cotton, the fragrance and stir of herbs
And the faint but perceptible scent of sweet clear water.
from the sequence ‘Daily Living’, published in Collected Poems
(Angus & Robertson, 1991)
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