Saturday, March 24, 2007

Memories

In the kitchen
There is a white ceramic sink
Little chromed taps sit above it
One of which drips slow and steady

In the kitchen
There is a wood burning stove
Filling this room with warmth and aromas
Roastings and fryings and bakings and boilings

In the kitchen
Is a larder with a creaking door
Full of favoured vittals
Awaiting their turn at the stove
And a wooden box of fresh baked bread

In the kitchen
Is an old chipped and notched pine table
Two pine spindle chair of similar repute
Where we used to sit and eat

In the kitchen
Was a wonderful woman
A carving knife
An indelible stain
Crimson stain
Crimson sink
Crimson chair
Crimson footprints

I huddle down
In my cardboard bed
On this forgotten waste ground
And wash away my guilty tears
With cheap cider
For another night

29 comments:

miss magic said...

wow!! cool poem! but I have a question. being the stupid fool that I am, can you please tell me if you (ie, the guy with the guilty tears) killed the "wonderful woman??"

Molly Bloom said...

Ooh, there you go again....the contrast between pleasure and pain.

Re the flower poem, I saw it as something lovely actually. If you watch the flower die together, you are still there aren't you? Watching the fading flower doesn't have to be sad. It can be lovely.

Hello Incxxx

Molly Bloom said...

Actually, I'd like to think that fading roses are still ok and not too horrible although sometimes I get sad about the wrinkles!! :)

Jay said...

This poem...changed on me. It tricked me into thinking it was sweet at first.

gautami tripathy said...

Very macabre poem on the kitchen. I enjoyed it. The twist.

gautami
Cook up a tale

Inconsequential said...

Miss Magic - not a stupid question, as maybe he feels guilt for not being around to save her from a lunatic...but, I reckon he did it.

Molly - In my memory you're still in full flower :) And yes the main point of the flower one was that they watched it together :) So the answer is of course, no, it's not a sysmbol :)

Jay - Sorry, it's a habit.
And I don't do many 'nice' poems.
Though I wrote one for you recently, I really must get round to posting it up...

Gautami - Glad you enjoyed it, I really must pop over to your blog more often. Thankyou for your comments on most of my SS contributions.

Anonymous said...

Wincy Willis was just on the TV, I know you will laugh at that.

Hee hee.

.707

paris parfait said...

I like the unexpected twist at the end of your poem. Well done!

Inconsequential said...

Paris - I suspect most of my twists are not quite as unexpected as i'd like...

Anonymous said...

OK, I didn't see that one coming--lulled by the repetition and the precise, comforting images.

Well done!

ShellyAnn said...

Wow, what an amazing poem!

Steve Isham said...

Inc, for a guy who kills off a lot of poem occupants you crept up pretty neatly. But I have to admit it started to seem too cuddly for comfort. :-)

Inconsequential said...

Thankyou all :)

I really don't expect you all to fall for these anymore, so it is pleasing when you do.
I thought those that had been before would really expect something unpleasant at the end...

I almost feel I ought to take a bow or something :)

Thanks Ish - you more than most ought to know whats coming, though it sounds like you suspected something...

I really must practise 'nice' poems.

Crafty Green Poet said...

I wouldn't call the ending a twist, but I really like the way you built up atmosphere here and how it changed, changing the readers expectations...

Amber said...

It started so lovely, and then turned so chilly and sad. It feels like a real memory, very personal. Good writing!

:)

Tammy Brierly said...

Very cool poem and I like how it turned. Wonderful imagery.

Inconsequential said...

Amber - I feel I really must say it is not one of my memories, and is is hopefully a fictional piece.
I sometimes worry people might think I write from experience...

Though the world can be so horrid, that this one is probably far too common in the real world...

Maybe I ought to try another flower poem, one is safe with those, though the three daffs I wrote of a few days ago, real ones I see on the way home from work have been brutally butchered and their corpses dragged off...

Though maybe the rabbits ate them...

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh...I never saw that coming! It's good and dark.

PS - Your comment on my blog cracked me up. Yep, we're chopstick chickens.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was all nice and cozy and thought to myself, "Wow. What a different sort of poem here from Inconsequential..."

Then the knife appeared. (I did not see that coming.) Good job!

BSJ-rom said...

Considered writing a dark piece that ends up nice???

Inconsequential said...

BSJ - have tried going from black to white, but the idea only lasts as long as anne diamond's baby...

Guess I don't have 'nice' in my system...

Inconsequential said...

Susanna - glad you were amused, I worry sometimes that people take my comments the wrong way, I rarely mean any harm... I'm quite a nice sort of person, it's just my poem type things that crawl from a sewer...

Drizel said...

Wowi...In, once again I am speechless....you rock:)

Rethabile said...

In the kitchen is buried my life, and the childhood of my days.

thefirecat said...

See, now, I read it as a suicide that the narrator found and felt responsible for......

Kimberley McGill said...

I tend to like poems like this at times - I think they shake people into realizing that there is suffering in the world. What is that saying "disturb the comforted and comfort the disturbed" - Good poem.

Inconsequential said...

Firecat - I had both plots in mind, a found death, ie suicide or murder, or a murder by the cider drinker, wanted to include 'his red right hand' even though someone a little more famous used the line...but decided to leave it upto the reader to draw a conclusion...I prefer murder, but don't mind suicide...

Now, I really must pop out to my therapist...

thefirecat said...

"prefer murder, but don't mind suicide..."

Hmmmmmmm! LOL

thefirecat said...

"prefer murder, but don't mind suicide..."

Hmmmmmmm! LOL