The Dishes Call

Maybe I should rewrite that South Pacific song Bali Ha'i...





Why did I leave the party my kids made for may father to wash dishes on Friday?  I used to hate it when my mother-in-law would disappear into the kitchen to wash dishes during family meals, but there's no wall between my kitchen and dining-room, and Shabbat was approaching.  I dreaded the idea of starting Shabbat with a sink full of dishes.


And now Shabbat is over and the kids have all gone home, and my father went to sleep early, rather exhausted from Friday's party and then all Shabbat with his great-grandchildren and their parents.

I don't want to wake up tomorrow to a sink full of dirty dishes, so I hear them calling...

The dishes may call you,


Any night, any day,


In your heart, you'll hear it call you:


'Wash away...Wash away.'


The dishes will whisper


Every room in the house:


'Here am I, nice and dirty!


Scrub me clean, scrub me clean!'



Original Bali Ha'i

Bali Ha'i may call you,


Any night, any day,


In your heart, you'll hear it call you:


'Come away...Come away.'


Bali Ha'i will whisper


In the wind of the sea:


'Here am I, your special island!


Come to me, come to me!'