Clean Rite

They took everything

Which is their rite

Washing machines, dryers

Flat screens, rolling carts

Change machines, tables for folding

Plastic seating, the front counter

Laundry bags dangling from the ceiling

Vending machines, detergent

Sunday evenings, Monday mornings

That game you put quarters in for a chance

To knock other quarters off a sliding ledge

Or to knock off knock off watches

Perhaps I should have known

Seeing that ledge slide behind the glass

For fifteen years, unceasing

The coins never falling 

The watches never any closer

That it was always about time and money 

When they lifted that game off the floor

To take it to wherever the past goes

The quarters must have slipped

Over the edge, the watches tumbling after

The game finally won

Which is their rite

The handwritten sign in the window says

Sorry store is close :(

With a frowning face

That meets my own

I had already started doing my laundry elsewhere

 

But yes, it is.