Laundromat Girls

by Mike Meraz

I am sitting in a parking lot waiting
for my laundry to dry.
all around me are Latin women
walking, talking, laughing, giggling;
young girls, teenage girls, girls my own age,
older women: hair, hips, eyes, lips, bodies,
breasts. sometimes I think the whole
Mexican culture is based on sex.

one of them locks eyes with me and smiles.
how is a man to stay pure in all this?
I am too shy to approach any of them.
it is my only saving grace.