My Mother Demonstrates How to Coil a Rope
Pick an end. Lay it across the U
between thumb and forefinger. Make a fist.
Crook your arm to a capital L
like Rosie the Riveter. Run the rope
under your elbow, back up to the U
loop after loop after loop after loop
A spiral. Squeeze the midriff:
a figure 8 or a fat infinity. Lastly,
with a few turns of the final foot
cinch it tight and tie it off
with two half-hitches. Behold her,
coiler of rope, vaunting her victory.
Give her a hand, ladies and gentlemen,
my poor tangled-up long-ago mother.
William Nelson is a retired lawyer living in Vermont. He won poetry prizes in college and in law school, and has published a book of poetry (Implementing Standards of Good Behavior, L'Epervier Press, 1972) and poems in various magazines. Nelson returned to poetry after a career as a public defender and he's posting some of his current work on a Substack page, https://williamanelson.substack.com/