A Clothesline In Winter
John Sibley Williams




The wooden fenceposts on both sides bow to weather
and halfway between                 earth
                                                                    and
                                                        sky
our line slackens,

brushing the coattails of one                      neglected
                cloth                 body
against a canvas of white.

What we’ve pinned to cloud
               hoping to dry               in time

clings to skin--                           grows harder
                                                                  than
                                                      bone.

What is it we wear
when there is nothing left
but rigid names for impossible
                           unsullied
                                      things?

             From a frosted window, 
we are dreaming a taught
                            connected
                                         thread
    
                                                     and figures
for the wind to make dance.

About the author:
John Sibley Williams is the author of eight collections, most recently Controlled Hallucinations (FutureCycle Press, 2013). Four-time Pushcart nominee, he is the winner of the HEART Poetry Award and has been a finalist for the Rumi, Best of the Net, and The Pinch Poetry Prizes. John serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and Board Member of the Friends of William Stafford. A few previous publishing credits include: American Literary Review, Third Coast, Nimrod International Journal, Rio Grande Review, Inkwell, Cider Press Review, Bryant Literary Review, Cream City Review, RHINO, and various anthologies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.