Folding by Joanna Lilley

September 15, 2023
Poem title: Folding Poet name: Joanna Lilley Poem: When the telephone rings, I clamp the receiver between my shoulder and ear and line up the edges of a discarded napkin. Listening to the radio news, I concertina a Home Hardware receipt. I iron handkerchiefs into hot triangles. I set the wood stove with folded fans of newsprint. Cat hairs glide across the waxed oak floor, the bathroom mirror is blotched. I stand at the kitchen window and fold a yellow tea towel until it is as small as you once were. I find it on the windowsill later, as I watch a waxwing eating mountain ash berries, sprinkling snow. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Joanna Lilley Previously published in If There Were Roads, Turnstone Press, 2017. Joanna Lilley lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, with gratitude on the Traditional Territories of Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. Her latest poetry book, Endlings, won the Fred Kerner Book Award; her first poetry book, The Fleece Era, was a finalist for the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry; and her novel Worry Stones was longlisted for the Caledonia Novel Award. Joanna has a master’s degree in creative writing from the Universities of Strathclyde and Glasgow and a postgraduate certificate in creative writing from the Humber School for Writers. Joanna loves sharing the joy of words and has given readings and workshops as far afield as Alaska and Iceland. In 2021, she received Commissioner of Yukon’s Borealis Prize for literary contribution. Find Joanna online at www.joannalilley.com.