The wife of the richest man on earth
and probably in the solar system,
the whole Milky Way galaxy and the
next galaxy over, in the entire universe
tells us that her husband likes to
load the dishwasher.  This appears
in an interview she gives about this
extravagantly rich and famous man.
She says he doesn’t like to unload
the dishwasher, only load it.  He’d
really prefer to wash the dishes by hand.
It’s what he did growing up, and it
seems right to him.  My family’s all read
this interview, it’s sitting on our
kitchen table among the peasant food we eat
like moldy pumpernickel bread and watery gruel
in the chipped and cracked dishes
we dine upon.  “How can this be true?”
my daughter asks.  “Why does he have
to do the dishes, with all that money?”
“Honey,” I explain.  “Rich people have
what’s called servants’ night out, and
that’s probably what it’s all about.” 
I go on to say that he doesn’t load the
dishwasher every night.  She can
take that to the bank, deposit it and
wait with certainty for interest to accrue

Karen Loeb teaches creative writing at UW-Eau Claire where she is a professor emerita. Learn more about Karen here.