You can hear the country music

when you step out of the Village Inn

and the Ace Hardware across the parking lot.

But you can’t tell where it is coming from

until you follow the sound to the back

of the laundromat where my husband’s band

is playing guitars and singing country songs

to the steady rhythm of washing machines banging

like drums as they swish blankets in soapy water.

A young mother taps her foot

and sings the chorus as she loads

her towels into the washer

as her preschool daughter whirls around

like the clothes in the dryers behind her,

her blonde braids and hands flying in the air.

A white haired couple stop folding clothes

long enough to do the jitterbug

while other customers listen, watch and clap 

as they wait for their clothes to wash and dry.