“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.