fleas

[Leanne]

FLEAS

In the hollow,
dogs were howling.  -- I like the alliteration/consonance in hollow/howling, but wonder if this wouldn't be stronger if the lines were reversed.  That way you'd also get a stronger link between hollow and sill over
Near the sill over the kitchen -- this is a strong break -- sink drops heavily onto the next line 
sink, my dad could hear them attention-starved
blueticks, -- not a fan of overusing commas -- if you're going to punctuate, go with a semi-colon or a dash here, or otherwise leave it naked -- and is it strong enough to occupy a line on its own?  You could perhaps try breaking after attention, across the hyphen, just to piss off the anti-enjambment brigade 
rowdy sweet dogs were howling chain-linked
and he was washing dishes with his
dad in the basin -- I like the ambiguity here -- could be the dishes or the dad in the basin, and then we shift to the bath scenario, which is a very neat segue
while he was young -- not sure while is the best word here -- what's wrong with when?
clenching carefully the soap -- an odd inversion, and unnecessary -- carefully clenching gives all the same sonic effects without the Yoda cringe
grandpa flashed dull arms,
asked him if he saw the fleas on them -- I'm not convinced that on them is a necessary addition, but then I don't know if every reader would follow the links and some might just go back to the dogs because they're not too bright, so maybe... you might shove in a quick bit of direct speech here, if you wanted to...
like black and tanned
he’d been howling, reeling,
peeling in chips from
so many plastered
nightcapped evenings -- these few lines are very strong, a downward spiral into the sound of glasses clinking, tying everything together
he’d been clinking tumblers, sinking,
asking his boy
you see the fleas? when there were none
grandpa washed with watered scotch and -- maybe while instead of and would work
dogs howled,
sweet and starved
like father, fleas, son -- the last line reads like the beating of a drum -- powerful and profound

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Wrote this a night ago. Beat it up.