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Sunday Morning at the Laundromat
by
Sharon Waller Knutson


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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.

 

This poem first appeared in Desert Directions (2015).
Used here with the author's permission.

 

 


Sharon Waller Knutson lives in a house her husband, Albert, built out of clay from the land on a dirt road in the middle of a wildlife habitat and open range of the Arizona desert. A retired journalist, she writes poetry for readers who don’t normally read poetry. In 2014, Sharon sold her chapbook, My Grandmother Smokes Chesterfields, to winter visitors from all over the world in a café where her husband played guitar and sang country music. Her customers told her they expected her to publish a new poetry book when they returned each year so, in 2015, she published Desert Directions, about her life in the desert. In 2016, she published They Affectionately Call Her a Dinosaur, poems about her customers and other seniors in her life who started new careers, businesses, and relationships after they retired. In 2017, she published I Did it Anyway, poems about how she broke the glass ceiling in the newspaper business in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when women were typically relegated to the society pages. Many more books followed, and now Sharon maintains an entertaining blog called Storyteller Poetry Review. Sharon and Albert (now retired from his music gig) stay busy raising assorted critters and enjoying their 11 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.

                             

Post New Comment:
Janet Wilcox:
Can't imagine a better place to practice, and such a receptive involved audience! I loved it.
Posted 01/15/2017 09:42 PM
jtmilford:
Great poem! The band is definitely not washed up.
Posted 01/15/2017 01:59 PM
blueskies:
VERY MUCH FUN! Thanks Sharon & Albert,too. Smiles.
Posted 01/15/2017 11:25 AM
Michael:
Poetry is everywhere and in everyone! Delightful Sharon--this poem is where we live.
Posted 01/15/2017 10:52 AM
Lori Levy:
LOve the way the music merges with what's going on in the laundromat.
Posted 01/15/2017 10:19 AM
Larry Schug:
Thanks for taking hold of me and placing me in this scene. It's just where I needed to be this morning. Nice writing!
Posted 01/15/2017 08:11 AM
Jancan:
What a delightful, exuberant poem! Love the similes. Janice
Posted 01/15/2017 06:52 AM
rhonasheridan:
What a lovely person Sharon sounds! Her poem is delightful.
Posted 01/15/2017 05:52 AM


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