i was talking to my pawpaw in the kitchen

i was cleaning the cabinets
for my grangran
i was wiping them with a sponge
graphically wiping roach shit from the corners
roaches
she and i both hated them
we live in a swamp, she'd say, there's no getting rid of them
but she wasn't there
just my pawpaw
in the dream
i'm thinking
i never really did this kind of thing for her
there's something
satisfying about it
something grown up
i don't know
and i'm washing the sponge
after every wipe
trying to remove every little pepper sized speck of shit
and then
then
i'm removing the cabinetry
scrubbing it
under running water
because
if it's gonna be clean
i want it clean
i can do that
but then
then there's a hose
that's somehow broken loose
water is getting on the floor
making a mess
and my pawpaw says:
leave it for now
i gotta fix that
or something like that
but somehow
it seems
like we've said more than that
and maybe there's a hole in the floor
i don't know
but i feel really right
there with him
like i know him
as an adult
which i never did
and
i mean
would i have
if he had lived
and i had been an adult
or would i have always been a child with him
in a way
in fact
this relationship i seem to have with him now
seems more real to me
and
if he killed himself
i get it
even though the chemo was working
and it was beautifully done
plausible deniability
would i have liked him
if i had known him as a wildcatter
some of this i'm thinking now
more than specifically in the dream
what was your father's name
did you really not know it
are you standing
as you
or do you stand
as ancestor
i'm just asking
i'm good either way