When I finished my self-defense class
my guardian angel gave her two-week notice.

Now that she did not have to accompany me incognito
she unfurled her wings for the first time in thirty years.

She stopped cleaning the house
to protect me from everyday germs

as if my self-defense class taught my body
how to fend off strep and nasty bathroom bacteria.

She did polish the door-nobs one last time.
But hung the laundry on a clothesline during pollen season.

I thought that a bit passive-aggressive
since she knew I had juniper allergies.

By the time they dried, my white towels
were a wondrous goldenrod deep into the plush.

She was gone by midnight not to be seen again
and I figured I imagined her giving her two-week notice.

copyright © 2022 Kenneth P. Gurney