Deliverance into purified light

The Giving Of It All

Who talks about dishes and laundry? The brief
devotions spent in ceramic supplication, the
deep stacking of Lycra and cotton, the solemn
setting of prayerful airs to fume dry the cutlery.

How many times have we bowed before delicate
rinse cycles that promise deliverance into purified
light, given our small time to in the attending of
what seeks to present us favorably to the world?



But who talks of these things? Slaves of fallen
empires sought rarefied earths to scour clean
the table settings of their masters, picked at
leavings when gongs were struck to clear away.

We sail out over edges of lost worlds in the
vesseling of protection and nutrient, task our-
selves in the enterprise of continuance, each
day a new cheating of what would reclaim us.

Run water with reverence. Scrub plates with
veneration. Fold linen with loving adoration.
These are the things that bring us day by day
into what we surrender in the giving of it all.

Joseph Gallo
May 29, 2009