so, I’m spinning around the room
circling my kitchen island
like Billy Collins searching for the perfect metaphor
like a shark in quest of cheese
covering my plates with crackers and cocktail onions
marinated mushrooms, their little heads popping up
one eyed olives winking red
prosciutto flopped over like it only just realized
you can’t be in shape with all that fat
smoked salami smirking
at how carefully it’s preserved
grab the glass and take a big swig
company is coming and the mood needs to build
the words need to flow, language like lava
sweeping the entire village in its hot wake
even though you threw a sacrifice of rum
which reminds you of the bottle you dropped last night, red sidling
into all the cracks, it took hours to clean that up
and still you have your doubts
something surely must be lurking in the corners
like a stale cocktail peanut crouching under the stove
the fire goddess said it wasn’t enough, it will never be enough
no matter how high you pile the plates, something always comes up short
carrying the guests down the lazy river
where everyone is laughing and everything is all right
where everyone always comes up cold in the end
shivering in their damp clothes, rushing hard for their cars
leaving you alone in the kitchen
where mountains of plates totter, like Vesuvius on the make
hands red, the victim of a thousand pyroclastic flows
parties that ran just a little bit late
like a bargirl who let her cigarette burn down too low
you scrub at your silverware, wondering
what ever was the point in the first place, why
you throw your heart on the altar, just
to find it tossed back at the end of the night
only picked at, never devoured
so sigh and scrape it into yesterday’s trash
with the rinds and the plastic
all your dirty, broken treats
Kathryn Leonard-Peck writes poetry, plays, short stories, and novels. She also paints. She graduated from Dartmouth College and Columbia Law School, and is an attorney. She currently lives on a farm on Martha’s Vineyard with her family. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals. She was the second place winner for the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing (MVICW) Vineyard Writers Fellowship, and was accepted to the Aspen Autumn Words juried workshop program.
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