Laura Rodley, a Pushcart Prize winner, has been nominated for the prize seven times and has also received five Best of the Net nominations. Her recent works include Turn Left at Normal (published by Big Table Publishing Company), Counter Point (published by Prolific Press), and Ribbons and Moths: Poems for Children (published by Kelsay Books). 

With a talent for capturing the essence of life, Rodley’s writing resonates with readers of all ages. Whether exploring the natural world or delving into human emotions, her words evoke a sense of wonder and connection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PClY8G6HQwk

House of God

She sits on a nubby green towel
on her bed, pulls up
loose nylons over her toes.
She washes herself with beige washcloth
using soapy water from orange
plastic dishpan on her night stand.
I stand by the doorway,
as she asked, to give her privacy.
I could help her, but she declines.
Her beige refrigerator hums,
propane smell from stove
heavy in the air.
Hamilton Beach can opener
sits unplugged on white Hoosier
cabinet counter. Kenmore cook stove
holds up black chimney pipe
bent into the wall.
House was bought when
her long-deceased husband
was the town’s butcher,
and the now-abandoned trolley line
brought people as far away as Greenfield.
The house is now quiet,
uncluttered, no piles of papers,
no children or toys.
Rooms upstairs full of trunks,
ceiling paper hangs down like ship sails,
large, bowed, useless.
Red boxberries sit on moss
in a tiny Pyrex terrarium
covered with plastic wrap,
adorn her kitchen table.
Finished, she walks out
with her gray walker
in front of her.
Lifting the walker, shaking it,
she asks, “Do you think the priest
would let me go to the front
of the church with this?”
“For Communion, sure.”
“I’m not worried about it,
I’ll ask him sometime.”
She walks to her deep two-basin
soapstone sink, bends forward
so I can wash her hair.

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