There's an ache deep between my shoulders
that gets me through washing the floors,
picking up dog poop,& negotiating car repairs.
It carries me across the
gulfs of unspoken conversations,
ignored aspirations,
& unacknowledged conflict.
Props me up against my own bones
keeping me upright for
early mornings & late nights.
My mother & grandmother had this ache
right between their shoulders.
It reaches out across generations,
laundry clips on the line of life,
securing us to its vagaries
until it wears out
releasing us to drift away
in the wind.
