Watching the dryer tumble and breathe
We sit here feeling trapped

There's not enough space
Between the lines on our watches
To leave home base
Or venture far away

Our apartment complex houses other humans too
Waiting to wash their clothes

If we leave
Our second load of clothes will be stuck
Abandoned
Sitting damp and cold in the washer
Without the treasure of quarters
To fuel them into the dryer

But staying here
Knowing we can't leave
Makes me feel like I'm Tumbling around in the washer and dryer too
Like a ragdoll being washed with my clothes

Our heads are overflowing
To-do lists are coming out of our ears and eyes
Panic pounding out of my heart into my chest
Its my day off work
I have errands to finish
And stacks of work
That follow me home from work
The obsessive-compulsive voice is taunting in my head
With "should's, and "could's, and "would's"

Piles of paper
And To-Do lists
In Writing
Waiting to come off its pages
To become action
To become more than a hope or a wish
On a To-Do list
But a completed piece to add to our world's story
Something that actually happened
Not something we wanted to happen but never got to

I'm standing by the door
But then a breeze comes by
It tugs my To-Do list out of my hand
Snatching it
And for some reason
I watch it flutter away
Riding the wind's wave
I almost want to smile and wave at the list as it flies away

Not because those little written words aren't important
But because we are the authors of them
So what really is the wind taking from us?

I can always write another one.
Those things can still happen.
Right now I've decided I'm giving myself to my laundry

We snarl at the wind
Acting like we only want it to be there when we are driving
With the windows down
Or when we are hot
But we snarl at it when we are cold
Or when we want our hair to behave

But maybe the wind is an invitation
To join the Earth in its song and dance
And maybe I was so busy with lists of paper in my head and hands
That I didn't realize

That I might actually
Get through my To-Do list faster
If only I stood still for a moment
However long I could stand

To watch the colors of my laundry spin in circles
Like a life cycle
Things are clean, they get worn, they become renewed again

It looks like Spring in the machine
Bright colors spinning like a storm of a kaleidoscope
Suds and soap smiling against the glass

How could I have thought
Stopping to watch my laundry
Was like being in a cage

When now
I feel more free
Than I did before