That which inspires.

I stumbled across this photograph in a book of women photographers. It just so happened I had been assigned to write a poem about a photograph that day, so I did.

"Court of the first model tenements in New York City, 72nd street..."

The clothes on the lines belong to people

but here in this photograph 

they are person-less and unencumbered.

The clothes float overhead 

like the thoughts of those 

below. 

Their paths cross and so their stories intertwine. 

The people are 

connected by taught lines, squeaking pulleys, 

and clean whispering bed sheets. 

five stories of narratives bound together by

 button downs and stockings.

The clothes, bodiless, but weighted 

with stories, herald the way towards the 

celestial spaces of the 

New York skyline.