By Cynthia Good

Instructions on Washing and Drying 

Just press the button, my mother says,  

Hold it, twenty seconds. Get help,

from the doorman. In the hospital

she’s waiting for tests. I can’t get her

dishwasher to turn on after a week

of dirty knives, lasagna laced plates.

Open, close, push the buttons, open

again. She tells me she has cancer.

I can’t get the fucking dishwasher

to work, or her washer or dryer.

I pull the metal handle. I got my hair

colored today, went about my day

as if none of us is dying. I’m not

sure my children know how

to fix what’s broken. One son lives

in a dorm. He washes plastic plates

by hand in a basement. I haven’t

told them about their grandmother.

They live on opposite coasts,

I can’t reach them to tell them

about washing and dying, or how

to avoid breaking, or that towels 

are piling up in the laundry

and mildewing in the basket.

Cynthia Good is an award-winning author, journalist and TV news anchor. She has written six books and launched two magazines. Her poems have appeared in journals including Adanna Literary Journal, Awakenings Review, Book of Matches, Brickplight, Bridgewater International Poetry Festival, Free State Review, The Main Street Rag, Maudlin House, Outrider Press and OyeDrum Magazine among others. Finishing Line Press will publish her new chapbook later this year.