Two Poems
by John Grey
“Kitchen Table”
A kitchen table is unaware
that love and hate exist.
It allows for a meal setting
but has no access to the thoughts
of those seated,
two on each side,
one at each end.
A kitchen table can feel
the clatter of cutlery,
the scrape of plates,
the passing of condiments,
even the occasional elbow
with head resting atop it.
But it has no concept
of how the food might taste
to each one eating.
It has no idea
how comfortable the diners feel
in their present company.
A kitchen table may assume
it’s in use of a family
but whether it’s a loving household
or one where the loathing
is barely held in check,
it has no idea.
A kitchen table
is somewhat assured by the fact
that it’s never been
thrust violently aside,
and its contents sent flying.
A kitchen table’s assumptions
stop well short of murder
“On The Way To A Man’s Heart”
for a man
she lays a plate for him
at her table
becomes hot stove,
haute cuisine,
as if to haul him in
with Burgundy and burton mushrooms –
some stay just long enough
for coq au vin
while others rally around
her tarte flambee
even her after-dinner cheeses –
in her mind,
cupid’s arrow can only be a fork,
its prongs digging
in her escabeche,
relaying the best of her
to taste-buds,
those impressionable advocates
of the heart –
the right man —
she could lasso him
with her pasta,
placate him with chardonnay
if only he wouldn’t leave
when the courses stop coming
John Grey is Australian born short storywriter, poet, playwright, musician. Has been published in numerous magazines including Weird Tales, Christian Science Monitor, Greensboro Poetry Review, Poem, Agni, Poet Lore and Journal Of The American Medical Association. His latest books are Between Two Fires and Covert available through Amazon. Has had plays produced in Los Angeles and off-off Broadway in New York. Winner of Rhysling Award for short genre poetry in 1999.
