Keep the Dish

You said you’d bring it Sunday.

I should’ve asked, “Which year?”

Somebody took the good dish home. Now it’s appearing in vacation pictures, attending reunions, and enjoying a social life its owner wasn’t invited to.

Keep the Dish turns a missing-pan grievance into an affectionate comedy about generosity, leftovers, and the limits of being a patient, loving person.

“Take the love and take the leftovers—

leave my cookware alone!”

But beneath the fuss is something familiar: sometimes asking about the dish is how we ask someone to come back.

A memory of Mama changes the conversation. The cookware can wait. There’s a kitchen light on, a chair waiting, and somebody who wants to hear about your day.

A little less keeping track.

A little more coming home.

“This old house sounds better when it sounds like you.”

For the casserole lenders, the habitual borrowers, and everyone who’s ever missed the person more than the pan.

— Nathan Garrett



Includes: one MP3 download of Keep the Dish with embedded cover artwork.

Creation: Nathan Garrett, using AI music tools.

The good spoon? Let’s not get carried away.