I’ve left dishes in the sink
And, not only in the sink, which is filling up,
A scavenger hunt
Because I didn’t want you to get bored once I left,
I’ve left mugs all around the room for you to find
Some half-filled with coffee which went cold too fast this morning,
Separating from still-oily cream
And others with water
And others with rings of tea
Which has been brewed several times,
Each one littered with lipstick stains
Reddish, pinkish, fading chromatography experiments
A sign that I’ve been there
That way you know which ones are mine
And better yet, I left you something to do
In case you’re bored
You can read my tea leaves,
Or interpret the coffee rings I left on the table
Decode mini Rorschach tests made of lipstick
On the edge of the cups
Or find some symbol in the bubbles of dish soap
Dissipating in a soaking pan
Or find some other excuse
To ignore the fact
That I forgot to do the dishes
And I used up too many mugs

Katarzyna (she/her) is a current junior at Columbia GS, majoring in urban studies. She’s from Chicago (a fact which she cannot stop mentioning), and she enjoys writing, cooking, and watching netflix comedy specials. Once she sent an essay of hers to someone and he called her "low-key chuck palahniuk or camus" so she guesses that's something. You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.