“Blue Chore Coat,” by Daye Phillippo (Poetry ’14)

2014 poetry alum Daye Phillippo was recently featured in Poetry. Read an excerpt of “Blue Chore Coat” below:

Blue Chore Coat

I have learned to love turning a bar of soap
     and the calendar’s empty pages in my hands,
soft lather that soothes, feels like ritual, lifts away
     things I don’t need. I have learned to love
the chickens’ ways, the hesitating way they walk
     like brides down an aisle, their contented churks
and startled squawks, the way one gentle hen
     in the nesting box raises up to let me collect
the eggs she’s been warming beneath her breast,
     then curves her neck to look underneath, head
upside down under there, then registering
     the emptiness begins to make small sad sounds,
only lament a bird can make…

Read the poem in its entirety here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/156299/blue-chore-coat