My basket's deployed:
Not a chance it could fail
I wriggle my fingers and pause to inhale
I fling the door open —
There’s no time to waste!
I scoop and collect with extravagant haste
The nooks have been scoured
The crannies are scanned
The warm drum (now empty)’s been scraped out by hand
No way this machine
Has outsmarted my whit
No way this dark black hole has my clothes in it
I dispatch the hangers
Swing open the drawers
Reload them, restock them to just like before
One at a time —
And yet sometimes in pairs —
Everything’s orderly, counted with care
But just when the smile of
Great victory
Starts etching and sketching its way on to me
I feel, underfoot,
Something fluffy and thin
And I know in an instant: the dryer DID win –
A SOCK!!!
It mocks me and lays there
All desperate and lonely
I hunt for its match but see that one and only
So how did the dryer
Outfox me once more?!
How, since I prepped for this, practiced galore!
My confidence, assurance
All now dissolved
The mystery of lost socks will never be solved!
But who will emboldened be
By this and show —
Please show the whole world … where DO they all go?!?!
Esti Stoian, 2025