Old Dish Sponge

Oh old dish sponge can you clean more than you can dirty?
I'm sorry I put you under the sink,
reserved for those messy clean ups
The jobs no one else would do
Thank you for being the one to see it through

Are you happy to do the job?
Or is it just all you've ever known?

I'm sorry for my disgust at you sometimes
Your porous body, your rough gnarled surface
I should be in awe of your ability to amplify,
to oxygenate,
to hold water twice or more your own mass

You are sculpted in the image of the mighty sea sponge,
yet are condemned to the kitchen sink.

I wish I could show you the ocean
But Im afraid you would drink your fill
and swell beyond reproach,
and with your head full of fish and brine,
I'd never be able to clean the kitchen again.

God, I'm so selfish.

Oh dirty sink sponge, do you envy?
Do you yearn?

Do you compose sudsy sonnets
Each lament bubbling ^{u p} _and ^{a w a y}
Each worry popping in an instant.

When it's late at night and even the cats are asleep,
when the dishes and cups are all finally tucked away. . .

Do you dream?

Can you teach me?

- by Jeb Katsiopis 2023