Nancy Devine teaches high school English in Grand Forks, North Dakota, where she lives with her husband, Chuck, 
and their two dogs, Whitey and Yo-yo. She co-directs the Red River Valley Writing Project, a local site of the National Writing Project. 
Her poems have appeared recently in Bear River Journal, Main Channel Voices and Matter: Fuel. She has work forthcoming in 
The Minnetonka Review and 42opus.

nancy.devine@gfschools.org

My Mother Rinsing My Hair

I close my eyes

and she leans me back

and gentle,

my body arching like a bridge

over the water first

in the claw-footed tub.

I lie completely down

fitting in the porcelain shell

better than a pearl.

She threads her fingers

through my soapy hair

weaving suds

out of it into a halo.

I come upright,

dripping as if

I am a cloud making rain.

And I open my eyes.

She is waiting, kneeling.