Listening to Annie Wash Dishes . by Matthew David Manning
Just behind me, my wife, Annie,
is washing dishes. For two days,
she made chicken soup
and now she cleans the pots,
places servings into the fridge
sniffling all the while.
Each pot pops and booms
behind the wall. There is so much
that sound hides from my eyes, though,
while she cleans them an image,
floating and invisible, teases me
this thought of her tapping
each cabinet in the kitchen
as a ritual for good luck. For New Years,
we had tang yuan because it’s round,
but my father complained
about our lack of black-eyed peas.
Matthew David Manning has worked as an English instructor at Pittsburg State University in the Intensive English Program. Matthew holds degrees in creative writing from Arizona State University and Pittsburg State University. His poetry has appeared various publications including I-70 Review, Red Paint Hill, Rust + Moth, Kansas Time + Place, and Chiron Review.
Guest Editor Laura Lee Washburn is the Director of Creative Writing at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, and the author of This Good Warm Place: 10th Anniversary Expanded Edition (March Street) and Watching the Contortionists (Palanquin Chapbook Prize). Her poetry has appeared in such journals as TheNewVerse.News, Cavalier Literary Couture, Carolina Quarterly, Ninth Letter, The Sun, Red Rock Review, and Valparaiso Review. Born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, she has also lived and worked in Arizona and in Missouri. She is married to the writer Roland Sodowsky and is one of the founders and the Co-President of the Board of SEK Women Helping Women.