Wash Day
Grossman, Allen
tion, I reversed the beginning and the end of the liturgy so no evil fairy could espy its content and take her from us (Daria, the children's book lover, understood completely). Steve's final post...
...First, soap...
...No stove, pigs or not, is hot enough to bring well-water to blood heat...
...May they be free from suffering...
...Then the washer, gas powered...
...at Brigham and Women's Hospital, three years after her first symptoms of multiple myeloma, cancer of the bone marrow....Her summer was difficult, and the last few weeks seemed impossible, but Daria carried herself forward with dignity and strength and love...
...After the pigs have done their damnedest, the cobs burn hot...
...Daria included in her funeral liturgy this prayer: May Josie, Leo, and Steven be well...
...The farmer's overalls heavy with desire...
...Leo and I and two of her siblings were with her this morning, and until she died...
...But, she could not...
...Fumes...
...Chapt...
...Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, editor of Commonweal from 1988 to 2002, is now co-directing a project on faith and culture at Ford-ham University...
...Her friend Mary spent all oflast night with her until 6 a.m...
...Handkerchiefs and lady's underwear...
...Allen Grossman Commonweal 8 October 8, 2004...
...6, vss...
...Gibbon, Minnesota (for Daria Donnelly) Soiled thoughts heap up like rags in a basket...
...In the root cellar beneath the kitchen potatoes sprout dead white because there's no light...
...Wash Day July, 1947...
...In fact, a basket of summer fruit...
...Time to do a wash...
...The weather's right, bright and windy...
...What dries last...
...Hard to start in the kitchen, but too heavy to lug outside...
...1, 2. (Check it out...
...May they be happy...
...Outside, on wash day, are two galvanized steel tubs for rinsing in the lovely air...
...Then hacked with a knife into Lux-like flakes...
...Not store-bought...
...A quick-dry day...
...Then, everything dries on the line in the winds of July...
...Steve's final post came Tuesday, September 21: "It is with utter sadness that I tell you all that our dear Daria, mother of Leo and Josie, my wife of fifteen years, died today at 1:30 p.m...
...What dries first...
...May Josie, Leo, and Steven be filled with loving kindness...
...Rinse Tub One: rain-water, sheer joy...
...Even last week we thought that she might be able to turn the corner...
...Water...
...Well-water is real cold...
...And may Daria Donnelly rest in peace as well...
...On the bib, where the heart beats, his everlasting snuff tin has inscribed an unwashable perfect circle forever...
...Rinse Tub Two: the bluing, too cold to be true...
...Also here comes the prophet Amos, with something in hand...
...At noon, the naked truth descends offering her stunning breasts...
...But stone-hard pigfat and lye mixed with oatmeal in a pail...
...The immediate cause of death was pneumonia, but much else was failing or had failed...
...The blue-enameled kitchen stove burns corncobs gnawed clean by pigs...
...There's a word for you...
...You need a heart...
Vol. 131 • October 2004 • No. 17
