Sweeping The Hearth

I praise the split-haired broom,
its homely bristles' curl
attentive to details of ash
remains of last night's blaze:

the leap and lull of a curious love,
its arc, a flame, assumes a place, a pulse,
not unlike that other
between our skin and hope.

Jeanine Hathaway taught English at Wichita State University in Kansas and was the author of the novel Motherhouse when this poem appeared.