“WASH YOUR HANDS”, Public Health commands,” OFTEN AND SAVE LIVES” We do. Or try, seizing the bar of soap that sometimes slips our grasp then slides around the sink in a brief escape to nowhere. Then along tonight comes another voice that speaks with authority saying nothing but lifts our palms to mouth then breaths on them and fills our minds with lavender. We see the words years before we hear them; dreamy lightning miles ahead of the hammer-blow of thunder struck. Words the shape of a pottered cup clean inside, outside dirty. Words stripped down on knees pouring ablutions on our hearts and drying them with a towel tied around a waist. Silent words speaking with authority in the flashy absence of sound before the crash: “As I have done to you, so you must also do.” WASH HANDS, SAVE LIVES First others’ and thus your own.