I’m 40-years-old
standing over a sink
steam rising
as it fills with hot water
I’m with a girl
someone I recently met
I offered to do the dishes
so out of character
but I wanted to impress
as she invited me over for dinner
great meal
great evening
great face
great smile
been several decades
since I’ve been a teenager in love
but I am smitten again
I recognize the giddy feeling
I plunge into the suds
searching the hot water
for another plate
we are deep in conversation
I love talking with her
love hearing her laugh
love her great green eyes
love her velvet skin
I love her
it’s true
I’m falling in love
like some school kid
and at my age
but the feeling is intoxicating
how nice it is again
to feel this fresh
this innocent
this energized
so taken by another
just then
her voice calls from the other room
lifts me from my daydream
I am still at the sink
my hands in hot water
but now
in our home of many years
I look through the archway
to where she sits on our sofa
I hear the tv
she’s watching “Blade Runner”
I hear Deckard’s voice
“I don’t know why he saved my life.
Maybe in those last moments
he loved life
more than he ever had before.”
I certainly love life
and I love her
her skin
not quite velvet any longer
but her smile
still captivating
I’m still soothed by her voice
still love spending time with her
even now
how much time
do we have left together
who knows
but certainly time enough
to finish these dishes
and then
who knows…
rob kistner © 2019
So touching, great recall and sharing, a great link to the movie too. We both used that quote…great minds and shit, right. I thought you might go off on a Sci Fi jag, but the sweetness of your memories trump fantasy.
Great minds do think alike dude. I still might go off on a scifi adventure — it is what I like best!
Even the mundane will bring comfort, when it means being with the one we love.
Love is a powerful healer, motivator, and a great friend — if it’s real ken!
How wonderful that you and she love each other so sweetly after these years.
We are not the couple in the bureau of weights & measurements Toni, against whom all couples are measured — but we do right by each other, and have for 33 years!
A lovely reverie that proves love transcends all. I really liked the way it ended with time enough to finish the dishes and maybe a bit more.
That was a loose reference to Blade Runner Lisa. The biggest concern for the replicants was how much time do they get.
Beautiful Rob! There is nothing much better than being in love. And for some women love is shown but doing dishes! I love it!
Thank you Dwight, Doing dishes for a woman is a major turn on — it will win her heart!
I enjoyed reading your flashback memories, Rob, and I like the link to Bladerunner. You made doing the dishes romantic.
Thank you. I think most woman would find a man doing the dishes romantic Kim.
So sweet soothing and loving … that’s true love when you are still doing the dishes 🙂
Love is in the small things Kate, freely given… 🙂
you excelled yourself with this one Rob – I love the soapy suds reverie and the past and present brought so beautifully together with that existential note of future hanging like a thread
Thank you very much Laura. I wantec to capture a bit of the movie’s essence fegarding the wuestion of time — how much do we get, jow much is left?
Well, I loved the way you started with your hands in the sink, and brought us on a journey back to that experience. I loved the link into the film – and, for me, the question about how much time we have is really central to that, and you make subtle reference to that. Overall, though, it was the tone that gave me goose pimples and brought tears to my eyes. Very lovely.
Thank you so much Sarah! I am pleased that you picked up on my interwoven time reference. Your words are most gracious.
You’ve perfectly captured that “giddy feeling” as well as how love lasts both through the profound and the mundane.
Glad this worked for you Xan.
This is absolutely lovely… and if I were you I would never buy a dishwasher… just to get that emotion every time you do the dishes.
Thank you Björn. The doing of dishes does not always spark reverie, sometimes it just makes me grumpy… 😉
I really enjoyed this. You do a great job incorporating sensory details, too.
Thank you RW… 🙂
A sweet rendition of the circular nature of love.
Thank you Kerfe!
I like the thought of being smitten with the one you are living with.
Absolutely Frank, and it is far better than being smote.