Out, Out, Damn Stone

In preschool they taught us to wash our hands

because playing with others made us dirty

you would catch something if the tips of your fingernails weren’t white

tiny fingers in the basin

scrub, scrub, scrubbing

like Pontius Pilate

crying, “out, out damn spot,”

but the Roman’s hands were already clean

even if his heart was heavy like a stone

I was taught that stones should never be thrown

especially by people in glass houses

I was hit by a rock on the playground anyway

and I thought that if people kept

tap, tap tapping

on the glass panels of my house

I might as well throw stones back at them

even if it made my hands dirty

I wash my hands after fighting with others

so I don’t get sick

I was taught that sickness can be cured by bathing in the right river

and always saying “please and thank you”

to the right people at the right moments

would Lady Macbeth’s hands have been cleaner

and Pontius Pilate’s too

if they had said “please and thank you” more often?

The children were taught to keep 

pick, pick, picking

until the tips of their fingernails were red

and my children will be taught,

“don’t dip your hands in the holy water

there is mold in the glass basin

you might catch something worse from the water

than from underneath a stone.”