Created on 20 September 2019; published on 21 September 2019

WARM WATER WASH
A Poem by Alice B. Clagett
20 September 2019

Two kids were in the laundry room.
15, 16, and very with it
They knew the ropes
They knew they could be there
in the daytime, to keep warm

Maybe they worked nights
in that Wild West town
stashing the cash
for a trip to Purgatory

. . .

Hey!
Hey! with a shrug
a half-pivot away
a sideways sritter
of downcast eyes

. . .

When snow lies thick
on the motel drive
may the laundry room door
stay open for ’em

May the vending machines
cough up the goods
when they shake ’em

May their mothers
know where they are
and pray for ’em

May God himself
warm their hearts at night
when the blizzard
don’t give a damn for ’em

…………………..

Alice B. Clagett

Except where otherwise noted, “The Chalice and the Crucible” by Alice B. Clagett … https://chaliceandcrucible.com/ … is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) … https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ ..