23 July 2012
Peg is the name of the lady that washes my clothes at the laundromat . Her hard bleached hands match her wind blasted face charred by broken veins and too much frowning.
When I was a kid I always thought your 'pegs' were your legs in old rhyming slang but mum told me these were your 'pins' ! "Show us your pins " they used to shout in the heyday. A time when Peg's smile was brighter and her hair had more sheen. Now she stoops and mutters to herself folding the creases in the trousers and adding bleach to the wash. At times when the sun beats through the glass windows and the dryers blast out she pushes out a sideways smile, part in reaction to sheilding her face from the sun and part in curling her mouth at one end. She reveals two remaining teeth, the only ones left in her head, her glimmering 'pegs' in the head of Peg who washes and folds and irons and starches our laundry .....
Peg The Laundry Woman • Opuss № I