August 2026, Poetry

Bars of Soap

In July issue’s “With Wand and Shawl: the Investiture of Vashon’s New Co-Poets Laureate,” we welcomed Iris Spring and C. Hunter Davis into this shared role. Please enjoy a poem by C. Hunter Davis.

When summer ended my mother put
the bars of soap in a tin
so we wouldn’t be pestered by
ants and mice.
All winter long when the summer place
lay in sweet damp comfort of
rotting leaves and gentle moss,
would ants and mice
be showering with our soap
washing paws or spindly legs
in puddles
sudsing fur or tiny bodies
with white bars of soap?
They would be perfumed with bouquet freshness.
I wondered why we could not be that generous.

~ C. Hunter Davis, Vashon Poet Laureate

August 7, 2026

About Author

hunter (Carey) Hunter Davis is honored to follow great Island poets as Laureate with Iris D. Spring. Hunter looks forward to maintaining and enriching Vashon as a welcoming environment for established and beginning poets. She herself has four current poetry collections published, including the recent one, Beauty. Her practice begins at 5AM on this magical Island in the Salish Sea where she has lived most of her days in a former schoolhouse with her dobro playing partner.


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