Washing Hands with Florence Nightingale

No one dreamed she’d come back
from retirement, but there she is,
in her long black gown, white apron,
and small lace cap, pulling up
the guards over her straight sleeves,
making sure the towels are clean.

She is standing by the sink, stern
as ever, never giving an excuse
nor taking one. I stand by her side,
learning to wash my hands
like a nurse. She watches,
hawkeyed, scrutinizing
my every move.

I let the warm water gush
from the faucet as I rub my palms
and fingers together, feeling
soapy lather slip and slide
over my hands. Then I use a brush
to scrub under my nails, washing
the cuticles and the white half-moons
rising in my nails’ pink skies.

People usually do this for twenty seconds
by singing “Happy Birthday” twice,
which she doesn’t know and I don’t like,
so we compromise. When she washes
she sings the doxology. I sing
“Ob-La-di, Ob-La-Da,” which she times
with a stopwatch pinned
to the chest of her white apron.

Next she makes me clean
the counter tops with Clorox wipes
and let them air-dry to kill the germs.
She inspects them as if she can see
the microbes dying one by one.

She tells me to do all this
three times before I get it right
as if she were a Zen master teaching
the art of sitting or the Way of Tea.
As if my life depended upon it
(which it does). As if it could save
the Crimean army or even
the whole world.

After this, she says,
Let’s have tea and crumpets,
then we can say evening prayer.

Of course, I say, I’ll put the kettle on,
bring out my best china and serve
the heartiest Assam tea.
The barest smile flashes
across her face: Yes,
but we’re not done yet.

Then she marches me down
the hall to clean the toilets.

Pamela Cranston is an Episcopal priest who has served San Francisco Bay Area churches and hospices for more than thirty years. She is the author of three books: The Madonna Murders (2003), Coming To Treeline: Adirondack Poems (2005), and Searching for Nova Albion (2019.) Many of her poems, essays, and reviews have been published in journals and anthologies such as Blueline, the Adirondack Review, Northwoods Journal, the Anglican Theological Review, the Penwood Review, and The Windhover, plus many others. Searching for Nova Albion was a semifinalist winner in the Poetry Society of Virginia 2020 North American Poetry Contest.