The Laundromat Poem by Audrey Stephenson

Everytime I see a stumbling relationship, I can't help but wonder where the world's patience has gone. Somehow this virtue has seeped into the fibres of existance that lay in piles, conquering the dirty brown tile floor, seizing this no mans land.

She's a real petite thing, real cute too, but all that girlish innocence is burried underneath years of experience. Really jaded, you know?
And those circles under her eyes just pop when her boyfriend drops their laundry change on the desolate battlefield. Scurrying across, he capsizes baskets and knocks over children, determined to retrieve the key to his renewal. Returning to his lonely station, he pops the coins into the antiquated washer, its dirty yellow paint peeling from the corners.

Now the girl's pretty face, it's hiding behind contrition; burried beneath the elusive cast of shame. She pulls her long brown hair back and mutters something loud enough for her lover to hear under her breath.

And while she is glaring a hole through him, I just feel sad. I don't know what she expects from this poor clumsy guy. Men have been the infamous bearers of two left feet for centuries, and I'm not sure why, but that isn't good enough for Princess I guess.

And this is why I wonder where the world's patience has gone. So often one will latch herself to another with the expectation of him saving her. What she doesn't realize is that it isn't his duty to become her shining knight. Before she does anything, she must be strong enough for herself, otherwise no one can save her.

It just gets on my nerves how people jump into relationships for security. It makes you vulnerable, and it makes you weak...
But sometimes there's nothing more you want than to just be around a person.

And this is hoow we spend our lives: In the laundromat. Shoving our soiled attempts into the automaton of existance, watching it flounder in uncertainty, in ridicule, in fear, in pain. And in the din of the buzzer, we take it out and start off new again just to end up right back where we started.

Such is life.