square woman
in a window –
green rubber apron –
starry eyes
look down at a little black dog
by a lamppost. –
bare blue arms
sometimes
she is bent
over a white cold glossy bucket –
she wrings the cloth –
white foamy soap-water
gushes in fine hard jets
out between red fingers
like milk out of a cow’s udder –
the cloth is a chemise,
the upper half of one. –
white chemise over white shoulders –
she wears a sky-blue smock. –
some of the hair has fallen over her brow –
the windows will soon be glossy;
she sees through them.
proud –
then she glides away from the window
in a soft jump
out behind –
merely a newly polished window
across the street.