A Clothespin on the Wire

A solitary wooden clothespin was clipped crookedly to the lower wire of the drying rack. I walked over across the sunlit concrete and paused to measure the angle. Its two wooden prongs sat tilted at roughly thirty degrees, interrupting the clean horizontal tension of the steel cord. Stepping close, I leaned my upper torso forward and nudged the flat side with deliberate pressure. The metal spring resisted slightly, then clicked smoothly along the wire. It swung into vertical alignment, perfectly perpendicular to the ground.