Linda lifts her purse

of a hundred compartments,

heads for the van.

When I ask how she can carry

such weight of the world

on her broad shoulders,

she shrugs and says,

If somebody needs it,

I've got it.

She searches daily

for the 'pause' button

in her life. It isn't there.

So Linda carries whatever

she might need

from house to house,

as much a part of her routine

as the brushes, vacuum cleaner,

Endust and rags

and never imagines

she could clean out her purse

the way she rids my rooms

of debris.

Biography

Patricia Wellingham-Jones, former psychology researcher/writer/editor, has been published in journals, newspapers, anthologies, and online. She has won numerous awards and been the featured poet in several journals. Her most recent books are Don't Turn Away: Poems About Breast Cancer, Labyrinth: Poems & Prose, Apple Blossoms at Eye Level and Lummox Press Little Red Book series, A Gathering Glance. She lives in northern California.