WASHING WOMEN AS RECIPIENTS OF PROPHECY
Washing women as recipients of prophecy
Malachiyahu comes back to the launderers
who gather their boiling vats around the ruins
of the city. “He’s back!” the women cry.
Their sleeves are rolled up past the elbows,
dresses knotted at the knees as they sweat
and stir and sweat and stir. Malachiyahu
chuckles and pulls back his hair, starts
slicing soap bars so thick it comes off
in flakes the size of Passover bread.
“What news today?” he asks.
“The temple has been finished!” one says.
“My sister has finally made it back with her family”
says another. “No word from my father,”
sighs another. It takes decades to leave Babylon
behind. Decades more to stir and sweat
over earth that was salted behind you.
“What news from Yahweh?” the women ask.
Malachiyahu holds up a stained shirt.
He drags the tough soap across it, saying
“Like a launderer’s soap, God will cleanse
you. Like the mortar beneath you,
God will build you. Like the sun
above you, God will blister and peel you
and stir you in vats until you emerge
spitting soap and can stand on your own.”
The fatherless woman, the one with no words
to spare, flushed with heat hums and clicks
her tongue. “Sounds like a love story to me.”
She does not defend her words, doesn’t need
to, because the women know what she means.