poetry on mamazine:

Grandchild
by Terri Taylor Weiner

Hard Scrabble
by Rick Chamberlin

Rooting
by Tonya Ward Singer

Resting State (for my mother)
by Rafaella Del Bourgo

Mom With Headache Lets Son Drive to School
by Rochelle Ratner

Songs I Used to Get in My Head All Day and Songs I Get in My Head All Day Now That I Am a Mother
by Jessy Randall

Folding Laundry
by Theresa McCourt

Daughter's Gnashing of Teeth
by Maureen Tolman Flannery

Firstborn
by Sally Goade

My Mother's Closets
by Sally Goade


71 - 80 of 126
LOGO LOGO LOGO LOGO LOGO LOGO LOGO LOGO

POETRY

Folding Laundry
by Theresa McCourt

Across the fence, white magnolias open.
I fold cloth, slowly, gently,
as if someone were leaving.

Across each sheet, I place my palm,
hold it there as if over a body breathing.
I smooth after every folding
to erase each crease.

Outside, the magnolia's thick
white petals spread to their reach,
yielding so freely to summer heat.
Inside, I fold from whole, to half,
to quarter.


Theresa McCourt has a B.A. in English literature and Drama, combined honors, from Birmingham University, England, and an M.A. in English Literature from California State University, Sacramento. For 15 years she worked as an editor-in-chief for a legislative office and then ran her own business, working as a freelance journalist, teacher, and editor. With the birth of her son, Ian, in 2001—followed by various deaths and struggles—she is now committed to honing the voice she almost lost a good few years ago. Her poetry has appeared in Toyon, Night and Day, and Poetry Now, and in 2005, she placed third in the 79th Annual Berkeley Poets competition.