Cup, Spoon

That’s not the muse 
in the kitchen
clicking kitchenware, 

just an old woman 
sipping her tea. 
Look: pencils 

sharpened to short 
stubs, tinfoil washed 
so often it barely 

covers leftover peas 
on their cold shelf 
in the icebox. 

Dad had to go 
with Mom to the store. 
Meat cost so much 

she couldn’t buy it. 
Night presses black 
against kitchen windows.

A frying pan 
soaks in the sink. 
Inside the drawers—

grater, masher, 
little knife. The big 
spoon, that was love. 

The bundle 
of pencils tied 
with white string.

BARBARA DANIELS

Barbara Daniels’s Talk to the Lioness was published by Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press in 2020. Her poetry has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Mid-American Review, and elsewhere. Barbara Daniels received a 2020 fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.