The Laundromat – a poem

Scene
A lonely laundromat, brightly lit. A man stands at a yellow folding table near a large window. Clothes tumble behind the round glass of a mint-green dryer. Outside, a late-night freight train rattles past, so close the windows tremble
and the floor hums underfoot. The man rubs the back of his neck, eyes fixed on the woman watching her clothes dry. His hair is unkempt, but he is clean— dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt. He realizes he’s missing his boxers.

It didn’t take long.
Her underwear circles

in the round window
of the dryer. His boxers

and her underwear
getting knotted together.

Now dry, she awkwardly
unknots them, as the man

Smiles, blushing a little,
says thank you.

Now She’s at home laying
in her bed, writing on her

arms over and over again-
tell me when do you know

It is love.