$3 WASH & DRY!

streaky white characters sprawl

across the water-stained window.

Creaky machines new decades ago

with bulky grubby chrome bodies

sputter & spin into infinity.

 Una viejita kneads her wrinkled knuckles

& waits for the stains to soak out of her aprons

& wonders how many more laundry days she has left.

Dust bunnies & deserted coins endure eternity

under the row of plastic orange chairs

that lines one of the peeling white walls.

An informal lost & found forms on a corner seat

a lumpy pile of dry lonely socks

& drier lonelier panties.

Una mamá clenches her jaw as she refolds

the shirts her wailing toddler just flung onto the linty floor

her back burning from the increasing heaviness of her womb.

A hand scribbled out-of-order sign

stares out from the glass of the vending machine

as another day of its endless guard sun-bleaches its ink.

 Una chiquita waiting for her tulle-lined princess dress to dry

         examines the faded sticker slapped onto the machine

a fat green snake slurping up its own tail.

From the silver speakers hung tenuously in each corner

squeak the same dozen decade-old pop songs

accompanied by the endless, echoey drum, drum, drum…