Dishes

I knew this bristly professor
Mean and alien, obsessed

Told me I needed to be

What he called "autotelic"

Told me I needed to love

Everything, even the dishes

I wised up a little late

Nearly nineteen, washing

Dirty anger off my hands

I want to apologize

To everything I didn't love

To my dad, who was dying

By the time I came around

Ready to be his kid

There's no going back

But I would do anything

For some hot water

And the blue Dawn

To do his dishes