Dishwasher Horror Coffee Cup Frenzy

Halloween causes all manner of strange things to happen and tonight, the coffee cups fly!

The Dishwasher

So, I´m stood there in your kitchen
With the detritus of dishes from the day
And as I ponder how to clean these nasty, stubbern stains
I hear a voice and turn to hear you say

„you can put them in that cupboard, for a washer it conceals
but take care to never open when it´s on“
„For who can know who does the dishes, and what horror it reveals
if you try to open when the light is on?“

So, this piqued my curiosity, and at the witching hour
Decided to investigate this claim
With a teetering pile of coffee cups resembling the Sears tower
I opened, loaded, closed it up again.

Now 30 minutes in, the cycle building, to a roar
I lost the will to sit it out and wait
With a sharp intake of breath, I reached, and, opening the door
Prepared to meet my culinary fate…

The cups flew thick and fast, some saucers hit me, some flew past
But in the maelstrom of the bubbles there appeared
A horrendous green-skinned goblin with a scourer and a sponge
And a little bit of food stuck in his beard

He leapt upon my neck, and razored teeth began their work
And as my head came off, that last thing I had seen
Was the little yellow fellow quietly mopping up the mess
So, though I´m dead, at least I´m scrupulously clean.

Jenny-bei-cafei…

I don’t know if a coffee gene exists. So that you can inherit the liking of coffee (or coffee cups). But the name of my mother was the one I put in the title and which, in English, would sound like Jenny-who-drinks-coffee. It was my mother’s nickname. Still is, in fact, since she is 82 and counting, with a younger sister, the only survivors of a 13 children family… She was called that name (her sister still calls her like that) because it was common knowledge in the family that you needn’t to prepare very elaborate meals to please my mother (Eugenia, shortly Jenny): if you would give her a large cup of caffé au lait and some bread she would be quite happy… and they called her Jenny-who-drinks-coffee… Not a bad nickname, after all… Another time I will tell you her secret coffee making ritual… For now, here she is, in her prime, in a detail of the painting I gave her for her 80th anniversary… Ion Vincent Danu

ION VINCENT DANU, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada