Empty wood crates for wine
grapes, stacked against the wall,
the labels on them decorate,
dark-haired beauties
balancing baskets of green
or purple, their sprigs ripening
Senorita Zinfandel, Pia, and Lodi Gold
are still smiling after their fruit is squeezed,
swallowed, and gone,
My pale white underwear drips
from the inside clothing lines
where no one will see
them, where my mother teaches me to hold
a thick bar of soap, how I should let it sink heavy
into my palm before I rub it into the red,
before I form two fists and scrub
until my washboard thumbs are raw,
until that dark stain of me is clean again.
