weatherizing for winter

the laundry mat has become a new favorite place.

it has a trickle of internet which provides the necessary connection

for email and work schedules.

and acoustics, that sound like a concert hall.

so i bring my guitar and sing to rows of wash machines and dryers,

under the watchful eye of security cameras.

i am waiting for the big brother of those fisheye lenses to catch on

to the fact that i do laundry every two weeks,

but inhabit the space every other day with my computer and guitar.

a homeless man came in today with a dirty tattered quilt.

edges were tattered and the stuffing was falling out.

i watched the man circle the machines, just milling about.

soon his eye caught a rack in the corner outside the janitors closet.

two rolls of sheet plastic hung there.

for a few minutes the man just looked at the plastic,

then he began pulling it from the rack, cutting four large squares.

he went outside for a brief moment

and came back with a roll of duct tape.

laying the tattered blanket over one of the folding tables

he proceeded to attach each sheet of plastic over a portion of the quilt.

hemming it with duct tape.

so while the boats at the local marinas were being weatherized

for their millionare owners. this man was weatherizing his quilt

for the cold, snowy, Salt Lake City winter.