Dish Towel … Desperation

Mom got the dish towel as a gift:
“today is a good day to be happy.”
A monarch (Mom loved butterflies)
dances brightly on the cloth.
The sentiment was and is surely sincere.
Who isn’t in favor of happiness?

Well … for some of us
being “in favor” rarely seals the deal.
For Mom, I suspect this towel
was no charming overture to the obvious
but more a desperate invocation
dressed up as a dish towel,
a silent entreaty to summon
her better angels each day—no easy task.

More than almost anyone knew
(except Dad and, to a lesser extent, me)
Mom lived as often as not
at the edge of melancholy,
terrain all too familiar to the two of us.
Her spirit, so quietly and genuinely
generous to others on the outside
could be equally restless, hollow,
anxious on the inside.

To be clear: she is no less for that!
If anything, she is more.
When I catch sight of this towel
beaming its message out at me,
I remember that for Mom
happiness was hard work,
and often aspirational.
She met most days on a wing and a prayer
and with a bit of dish towel desperation.

It’s coming home with me,
to remind me of Mom
and to bolster my own aspirations.

* * *

October 29, 2026
David R. Weiss

NOTE: This poem will perhaps come as a surprise to many. Everyone who knew Mom, knew that Alzheimer’s ravaged her mind for the last half-dozen years of her life. But few people knew (or even suspected) that Mom wrestled with low self-esteem, episodes of depression, and frequent visitations by melancholy. I knew this because it came up in our late night conversations (often sparked by my own acquaintance with depression and melancholy). In some writings (by each of them) that I found among their things, it became poignantly clear that these facets of Mom’s disposition, while hardly the whole of who she was, were at times the leading edge in their relationship and in Mom’s inner life. This poem honors that truth.

***

David Weiss is a theologian, writer, poet and hymnist, “writing into the whirlwind” of contemporary challenges, joys, and sorrows around climate crisis, sexuality, justice, peace, and family. Reach him at drw59mn@gmail.com. Read more at www.davidrweiss.com where he blogs under the theme, “Full Frontal Faith: Erring on the Edge of Honest.” Support him in Writing into the Whirlwind at www.patreon.com/fullfrontalfaith.