The sister who would not do the dishes...

May apologies for being too busy to keep up the daily posting. Today I have something a bit different to present to you – a poem. Not your usual poem though. For those of you who know who Shel Silverstein is, you may be familiar with his poem (and song) called “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the garbage out.” One of my shortcomings of late is not doing the dishes often enough. This prompted the re-writing of the following poem dedicated to the memory of Shel Silverstein.

Sister Frances Allouicious
Didn’t like to do the dishes.
She’d scrape the pots and leave the pans,
Piled in the sink with bits of hams,
And though her sisters would scream their wishes,
She simply would not do the dishes.
With coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas, rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese,
They filled the sink, they covered the floor,
They cracked the window and blocked the door.
Plates with bacon rines and chicken bones,
And drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Cereal that had dried on bowls like steel,
Bowls with hardened old oatmeal,
Cups with coffee turned old and green,
Bowls with bits of tangerine,
Pots with burned on bits beefy roasts…
The dishes rolled on down the hall,
They raised the roof, they broke the wall…
With greasy napkins and cookie crumbs,
Plates with stuck on bubble gum
Cellophane from Tupperware
Saving things now covered with hair
Knives with food caked and dry,
Saucers with forks and crusts of pie,
And old bent spoons
Quickly filled the rooms,
With smells of fried and rancid meat,
And bowls with glued on Cream of Wheat.
At last the dishes reached so high
That they finally touched the sky.
And all the neighbors moved away,
And none of her friends would come to pray.
And finally Sister Allouicious,
Said, “Ok, I’ll do the dishes!”
But then of course, it was too late…
The dishes reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
And there in dishes she did hate,
Poor sister met an awful fate,
That I cannot now relate
Because the hour is much to late.
But sisters remember Sister Allouicious,
And always do the dishes.

God bless you all,
And God bless Shel Silverstein wherever he is now,
Sister Julie