The sound of the dishwasher’s hum
was like Taps–Day is done, Gone the sun–
a refrain at the end of the night:
kitchen clean, day is done, all was right.
And if all was not right, I could wait
and go back to counting the days.
I miss that old dishwasher song
as I stand in the kitchen alone–
that gentle staccato-bump-whir,
that hum that sounds like a purr.
I touch the dishwasher door
to feel for the sounds, maybe more.
The memory of you is so near
but the rumble is just barely there.
Deidre Sullivan is a senior vice president at Verve, a global insights agency based in London, and the author of What Do We Mean When We Say God? (Doubleday). Deidre is a graduate of Brown University and holds an advanced training certificate in Applied Mythology from the Pacific Graduate Institute.
