WEBVTT

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"From the Wash House Files."

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This is in a new book
called Love Child's Hotbed

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of Occasional Poetry.

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I won't go into why that
title is what it is right now.

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I don't have enough time.

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On the occasion of washing
clothes at the laundromat

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and being approached
by a woman wearing

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a black eye who told me the
story of how my hair came

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to be.

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In your country
where you are from,

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I don't know what your people
say to you when they recognize

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you for the first time
at the laundromat looking

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the same as all the rest of
your family with your dirty sack

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of laundry and your
pencil dangling like one

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long forgotten earring.

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I don't know what sounds
you or your people

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make when you are there in
front of those big white hungry

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machines with their spacious
specious open mouths.

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In your country,
do people only want

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to get in and out of the
door of the lavanderia

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with their stuffed pillow
case fat with fresh clothes

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and a leftover one half bottle
of detergent for next week's

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run?

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Do your people just
want something clean?

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Is that all, something to
wear without the stain of ink

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or tomato sauce for school
or work the next day?

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Wherever you are
from, are you allowed

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to catch hold of the
eyes of a stranger

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while you are there at the
lavanderia house of dirt,

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working for a cleaner world?

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It is after all a place
of great wind and water,

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which often makes for a
faultless and more deeply

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scoured conversation.

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Is conversation in your country
sought after or a clean clothes

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without an old stain to mark
you used more important?

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Tell me.

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I really want to know.

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Do short and tall
people in your country

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check the pockets before
pushing the small coins

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into the thin silver
slots before hitting wash?

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Maybe your country is
just different from mine.

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Maybe in your country
you are of the kind

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that keeps your eyes to
yourself while the dirt spins

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uncontrollably.

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We have people like
that in my country, too.

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Have you ever noticed the
children running everywhere

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at the lavanderia wash
house and the things

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they can find to hide behind?

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Inside the lavanderia, it is
easy to do three or four things

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at once including watch
your children hide and play

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with bubble water
and that crazy wand,

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talk about the weather or the
price of almond milk going up.

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Do they have that crazy
plastic wand in your country?

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I am not talking
about the library

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with its quiet
demilitarized zone.

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What I speak of is the unquiet
of the lavanderia house

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of agitation, that
house of dirt that

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is required for our
country's clean clothes.

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Children running down the aisles
in between the spin cycle,

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sweating up good
for the next load.

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I don't know if you even
go to the wash house.

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You might have your own
matching washer and dryer set

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right at home.

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You might never
get to see anybody

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who doesn't look
like you, someone who

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badly needs a roll of quarters.

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The last time I was at the
lavandaria, 11 farm workers

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unloaded themselves from one
formerly white tobacco truck.

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They walked in, chose
a washer carefully

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like they were on a date.

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They peeled off their
nicotine soaked top layers

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and dropped every stitch of
their workday pants, shirts--

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not their socks-- right into the
wide open mouth of the washers.

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At first I looked
away as they undressed

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until they started laughing
in Spanish at my immodesty.

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They waded into the laundromat
like a beautiful team

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of magicians with
nothing to hide.

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They in their long one
piece white underwear

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telling stories of home with
the wash cycle churn and--

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wash cycle churned and gulped
onto the story's shiny end.

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I didn't understand
the words, but I

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did understand their brown
bodies soaked in laughter

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and kneading their hands
to finish their memories

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while they grabbed
their baskets on wheels

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and walked their wet clean
clothes to the high up dryers

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in just their socks
and long underwear.

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Their feet made little
fish-like moisture

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outlines all across the
dusty concrete floor.

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Do feet do this in your
country, too, leave a mark?

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I decided the story they were
telling the whole lavanderia

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was from another time
when no one had eyes,

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only fingers and laughter.

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All of this is told in a foreign
language of sweaty sock feet

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language.

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Does this happen in
your country, too?

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Have you ever noticed what
can pass between people

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who don't really know each
other when the change machine is

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broken but somebody still
needs a quarter, $1 in quarters

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to finish their load
and get back home?

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A student of
architecture walked in

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like he was only there
because the storm had

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knocked the electricity
out in his condo

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and he was in a pickle.

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He stood way over
on the side away

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from all the magicians
in their sock feet

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and me with my
dangling earring pencil

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from another time and place.

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His many books were
stacked high between us,

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and his box of
laundry detergent was

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so large it could have washed
all the clothes in town.

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Behind him in the glass, I
could see him drawing a trellis

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on his little electronic pad.

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Looking into the glass beyond
people attending the lavanderia

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is allowed in my country.

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We do this in order to see over
the shoulders and interfaces

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of each other's souls.

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He never once looked up
to see who was around him,

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not even when the young mother
was a very recent and still

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blooming black eye walked in
with her four swing dancing

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kids and no sunglasses.

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Never once lowering her
head or looking away,

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she caught me
staring back at her

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at the birth of
her new black eye.

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Are you OK?

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I was just about to ask, but
she got her question in first.

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Hey, I was going to ask you this
last week when I saw you here.

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Is all that your hair?

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And if it is, do you know
that because you wear it

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that way that you can speak
directly with your ancestors?

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No call waiting, no busy signal.

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I don't know if
in your countries

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people speak to each
other like this.

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I don't know if people in your
country speak to each other

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at all, especially if
one has a black eye

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and the other one does not.

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I don't know if where you are
from people even like going out

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of their safe and
comfortable homes.

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Do people where you
live pretend they

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don't know what they do
when your skin looks happier

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than theirs?

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Do people in your
native lavanderia

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stop and smile at each other
without really thinking?

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Do they say things
you never expect

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them to say right there while
you are steady measuring out

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just the right amount of
bleach for your favorite white

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t-shirt?

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I don't know what kind
of people you come from.

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I don't even know if your
people take off their hats when

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they come in the
door or leave them

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on when they see you
with that measuring

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cup in your hand working hard
to keep your white clothes

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from mixing with your color.

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I don't know what your country
taught you about strangers.

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If they told you when you were
born to avoid them at all cost

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because you might be shot
in the middle of your eyes

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or asked for money or a
ride home or any word shared

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might make them turn and
want to marry your daughter,

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maybe you weren't
cautioned against speaking

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to anyone who doesn't look like
you because it might slow you

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down from your busy day or
rob you of something you never

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wanted to be robbed of
because you will need it later

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after your clothes have
dried and you haul them

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to your car to drive back home.

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I don't know if you ever have
seen brown magicians only

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wearing white socks or if
anyone has ever approached you

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with a hair origination story
that you need to feel and know

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for the rest of your life.

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But where I come
from, these people

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with their unpolished medals
for eyes are everywhere.

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They smell of bleach and
wear fresh black eyes proudly

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while their children hide
and seek and blow bubbles

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and stitch--

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and stick out their
tongues at that frightened

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undergraduate student
who pretends he is not

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in the country that he is in.

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[APPLAUSE]

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