back yard

Sun in the back yard

Grows lazy,

Dozing on the porch steps

All morning,

Getting up and nosing

About corners,

Gazing into an empty

Flowerpot,

Later easing over the grass

For a nap,

Unless

Someone hangs out the wash--

Which changes

Everything to a rush and a clap

Of wet

Cloth, and fresh wind

And sun

Wide awake in the white sheets.

all the small poems and fourteen more

Valerie Worth