Premonition

I wrote this a couple year's ago and reading it now it seems appropriate.  Perhaps it's a vision from the future.

Doing the Dishes

This afternoon I caught you with

Your thoughts spread out over the fields of Kansas

Like mayonnaise over whole wheat toast,

All white and bland and completely unknown to me.

So I sat and watched you do the dishes

As food gathered in the mouth of the drain

And water welled up in the sink.

You stood bowed in prayer beneath the westing sun

Like one who comes upon a box of trinkets

Tucked away under an old brass bed

The bottle caps and broken toys that seem

To sum up, with a mournful sigh, a life.

And you cradled each dish for a moment

Turning them over in the fading light;

And food gathered in the mouth of the drain

And water welled up in the sink.

Your pale ringless fingers skated over the Teflon

Face of a pan you caught your reflection in;

I heard the flick of your long nails picking at the crusted

Bits of acne from last nights’ dinner;

Your hands were slow and gently methodical

As though you were washing the face of a child;

Food gathered in the mouth of the drain

And water welled up in the sink.

I listened to you idly remark of several springs ago

And how dreadfully pink your shoulders got

As you stood rubbing the fake porcelain plates,

Trying to coat them with the warm luster of your skin

As one panning an old stream rubs yellow rocks with gold;

And food gathered in the mouth of the drain

And water welled up in the sink.