What Moms Leave Behind
There was still laundry in the dryer
when I went to your house
to tend to the kids you left behind,
the husband who does not yet know
that with infant socks,
it’s easier to just house one inside the other.
That they are so tiny,
so insignificant in size,
that you must wash them in a mesh bag
so as not to lose one part of the pair
like he had.
His wife,
his daughter’s mother.
When I arrive at your house,
at his house, now
at the house of the baby who wears the tiny socks,
I fold your laundry.
I match the socks.
I take your clothes home with me
because what else is there left
to do,
to take home with me,
than the clothes you left in the dryer
for another woman to fold.
Jessica Danger is an Assistant Professor of English at Vanguard University, the Director of Education at Dead Reckoning Collective, and Joshua Tree Writers Retreat Co-Founder. Her memoir, No Heroic Measures, is out in Spring 2026 with the Santa Fe Writers Project. She lives in Southern California with her Army Veteran husband, Keith Dow, and their family. She’s online at Jessica-Danger.com
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