Smooth Extrication
Movement outside my front window.
I move to investigate.
A gnarled and bearded
homeless man,
sorts through
my neighbor's garbage can
with a homemade
claw of a tool.
This?
Maybe.
No.
Not this.
This.
The claw extricates a garment.
The extrication is silky smooth.
A gray WSU hoodie.
He inspects it.
He folds it neatly, tight.
He sets it on his wagon.
My neighbor must have thought
the hoodie too dirty and threadbare to donate.
It makes me wonder what I've thrown away
that still had purpose.
The claw extricates another garment.
An even smoother extrication this time.
A gray WSU sweatshirt.
He inspects it.
He folds it neatly, tight.
He sets it atop the hoodie.
He makes me think of my
dead Uncle Dale.
A clothes horse
who hung up his
t-shirts on hangers
and arranged them by color.
Someone, somewhere
along the way
taught this man
how to fold clothes
like this.
His form didn't develop
on its own.
He's been doing
it his whole life
and why stop now in your
40s or 50s.