The Operation
by Patricia Wallesverd
The iron spreads the clothes flat.
The kitchen smells hot—burnt cotton.
Steam lifts from the sleeve
of a white shirt.
I think of my dark-haired friend
on clean sheets
sharp with antiseptic.
I lift the iron—
its red mouth hissing.
I lower it slowly—press
until the cloth begins to darken.
Patricia Wallesverd is a retired high school English teacher who lives in northern Wisconsin with a husband and a dog named Dorothy. She writes poems inspired by the natural world and the human condition.