In The Kitchen

Published in Lost in Tall Grass (Finishing Line Press 2014)

You’ve been stooped
over that bubbling pot
a long time,
steam curling around your ears,
beading up on your arms
as you whisper and  stir.

Dip your ladle into the soup,
let it disappear
below the surface of groaning trees,
dripping moss fingers into black waters,
home to hermaphrodite toads,
walking catfish, blind newts.

Serve up the oily dredge
of simmering secrets
salty from your tears,
so hungry
you know I will slurp it up
and ask for more.