The Zen of
Housework
I look over my own
shoulder
down my arms
to where they disappear under water
into hands
inside pink rubber gloves
moiling among dinner dishes.
My hands lift a wine
glass,
holding it by the stem and under the bowl.
It breaks the
surface
like a chalice
rising from a medieval lake.
Full of the grey wine
of
domesticity, the glass floats
to the level of my eyes.
Behind it, through
the window
above the sink, the sun, among
a ceremony of sparrows and bare
branches,
is setting in Western America.
I can see thousands of
droplets
of steam -- each a tiny spectrum -- rising
from my goblet of grey
wine.
They sway, changing directions
constantly -- like a school of
playful fish,
or like the sheer curtain
on the window to another
world.
Ah, grey sacrament of the
mundane!
~ Al Zolynas ~
(The New
Physics)
(left button to play, right button
to save)