Dishwasher
This is where they wash the newborns like dishes.
—Annie Dillard

Small heads,
oval, round, pear-shaped,
scrubbed clean by wrinkled hands,
lie above

a line of feet, pea toes
multiplied: bundles of flesh,
side by side by side
on the drain board.

These people coming out,
eyes staring,
what can they tell us?
Their cries are rasping—