San Francisco
by Richard Brautigan
This poem was found written on a paper bag by Richard Brautigan in a laundromat in San Francisco. The author is unknown.
By accident, you put
Your money in my
Machine (#4)
By accident, I put
My money in another
Machine (#6)
On purpose, I put
Your clothes in the
Empty machine full
Of water and no
Clothes
It was lonely.
PHOTO: The Wash Club laundromat in San Francisco, California.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Richard Brautigan was born in Tacoma, Washington, in 1935. When he was in his twenties, he moved to San Francisco, California. Robert Novak wrote in Dictionary of Literary Biography that “Brautigan is commonly seen as the bridge between the Beat Movement of the 1950s and the youth revolution of the 1960s.” Brautigan wrote of nature, life, and emotion; his unique imagination provided the unusual settings for his themes. Brautigan is the author of the poetry collections June 30th, June 30th (1978), Loading Mercy with a Pitchfork (1975), The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster (1968), Rommel Drives on Deep Into Egypt (1970), and The San Francisco Weather Report (1969), among others. He died in 1984.
POETRY and PLACES 