After you switch on the machine

it all goes spilling

& the tumble gives the same sound

so either our strings are all crisscrossed

or we wash the other way around.

Where fabric gives a hand to breath

breath turning more breath

giving back into this machine

letting the dirty slip around

leaving it all to go spilling

on to the middle, out of the beginning. Crossed

out until there is only sound

piles of dampening sound

even louder now. A breath

that brings the bottoms of lace crossed

into both mine and hers and mine and her machine

slipping to a silkier spilling