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  1. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
  2. Medicine and Meaning
  3. The Laundry Cycle

The Laundry Cycle

Do you ever feel like a shirt,
With wooden clips pinning your shoulders to the line,
Left blowing in the wind to dry,
With your colors bleaching under blue sky?
Do you ever feel like a sock,
Bought extra in a pack of three,
Left in the crease of a washing machine,
Each cycle bringing swirls of new dirt and clean?

Do you ever feel like a blazer,
Complementing a blue button up,
With fitting cuffs level with the first thumb,
And a flower-pinned lapel smelling sweet as plum?
Do you ever feel like fresh underwear,
Sought out like the last clean pair,
Slipping on with ease with only a folding crease,
And fitting the form of hips with fleeting Tide whiffs?

I feel everything,
I am a shirt that is both clean and dirty,
Cycling through the laundry each week,
Tidying myself for a new day,
Getting dirty the same day.

Mason Belue is a medical student at UAMS.

Posted on October 7, 2020

Filed Under: 2 - Poetry

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Phone: (501) 686-7000
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