| . | 
 The only outcome that is not inevitable
 My sister has just now finished
 sweeping wiping scrubbing scouring polishing
 the kitchen, some of it with a toothbrush, but
 the coffee grounds in their big shiny can
 with the red plastic lid are restless.
 They want out. Now.
 No kitchen was ever meant to be this clean. Even the Gods
 are crabby because even their kitchens have the odd
 splotch of spaghetti sauce by the back burner
 or the greasy dusty merger in the corner of the splashboard.
 My sister doesn’t think of herself
 as tempting fate, but it’s a fact,
 and the agents of her plummet from the heights of hubris
 know she’s eventually going to want
 to take a coffee break.
 The red lid cinches itself
 down a little tighter.
 The grounds, massing just below the can’s jagged edge,
 poise to spring.
 It is a dreadful trajectory.
 The only outcome that is not inevitable
 is my sister’s outcry,
 practically any extreme of which is probably forgivable
 at this point. The Gods themselves lean in close
 to listen, elbowing each other in the ribs as my sister surveys
 a hundred thousand jagged shards of coffee lodged
 in every nook and cranny and crevice possible.
 Perhaps my sister senses her Audience of Eavesdroppers
 as she takes a deep breath, exclaims, “Good golly, Miss Molly!”
 then turns on the faucet and dampens the sponge.
 
 
 
											
										 
											
												
														
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