hanging on the line
torn cloth, too threadbare for sheets
but good enough for you
for between your legs
on the cursed days
clots caught
slipping as you walked
the paddock to the house
you washed them
your own hands
in the cold concrete laundry
men at the door
blood lingered in buckets
under your nails
ran down the drain
dunked, held under, dunked again
then blued and
wrung through the ringer
to hang white flags
of your surrender
in weak morning sun
* Pezzi: Rags
Josephine Clarke is a member of the Voicebox collective and Out of the Asylum Writers’ Group. She has had poetry and short stories published in Australian journals including Westerly and Cordite and recently featured in the ABR’s States of Poetry WA, series 2.