Aubade

An aubade is a poem written to a lover, parting at dawn. This is something slightly other than that. Why it is about laundry I don't know, it just is.

Source: Michael Gäbler, wikicommons

Aubade

in the first rays of sunrise
the first words you say cannot be a lie
every new pair of lovers knows this
i once knew this, i think

this is the reason, she says,
you cannot let the laundry hang
overnight on the line, lest this blessing
dry with the dew into each sleeve,

wind among the sheets, and twist
each conversation to the one thing
you cannot let the other know
that you believe to be true

oh really, I say laughing, what
between us would that one thing be
and to the look she gave all other words
fell in shadow to the floor