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Laundry
Poem by Aubrey Atwater
From her book, Don't Bother the Phoebe
Recorded live at Stone Soup Coffeehouse, April 17, 1999.
Aubrey Atwater: spoken word

lyrics

i have folded a generation of clothing
For today is your twentieth birthday
And I'm looking at old photographs

Here you are on the ferry
With your light blue over-sized T-shirt
I remember it's slow thinning over years through washing
How you loved that shirt
And then one day you put a green garbage bag in the kitchen
And said, "These are clothes you can give away."

I remember also the gradual growing of the trousers
They were so little at first
Easy to wash
Holding them fresh out of the laundry
I would snap the legs to remove creases
And then when the pants got bigger and exceeded my own
I was the littlest one in the basket

How many times I have stood at those machines
Folded your shirts three ways
And wondered how you were doing
In forth grade, in seventh grade, in high school
The years chronicle themselves by clothing and haircuts
Here you shaved one side of your head
And for months wore a shirt that said, "whatever"

Now, only weeks ago you've moved out
Soon to buy your own garments
Perhaps trade with friends
And when you visit to use the machines
You will carry your soiled laundry
Packed tight into the black hamper
And pass over my threshold in stranger's clothing

A T-shirt I don't know
Unacquainted frayed pants
And mis-matched socks I never bought

credits

from And Then I'm Going Home 2001, released May 9, 2001
Aubrey Atwater: spoken word

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Atwater-Donnelly Warren, Rhode Island

Aubrey Atwater and Elwood Donnelly, present delightful programs of traditional American and Celtic folk songs, a capella pieces, old-time gospel songs, dance tunes, and original works, blending gorgeous harmonies with guitar, Appalachian mountain dulcimer, mandolin, tin whistle, harmonica, banjo, bones, spoons, limberjacks, and Appalachian clog dancing and French Canadian footwork. ... more

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