Kitchen Logic
Maybe if I had been organized
Possessed the logic of canisters
neatly stacked
tea on top
of coffee
beside flour
next to sugar
maybe I could have made us work.
I’ve posted this poem for the woman who contacted me through my website to say that she remembers reading “Kitchen Logic” over twenty years ago when she was a student in an Ontario university town. She says that she spent a lot of time riding the bus between campus and home. My poem was posted on buses throughout Ontario.
I’d forgotten that “Kitchen Logic” had enjoyed a free ride in those days. The poet Molly Peacock selected poems for a project that was called Poetry in Motion. Molly was part of a team that chose work for public transportation across North America.
The past is always present and I’m happy to revisit a poem that continues to speak to the woman who reached out to me. Unfortunately, the book is no longer in print. Instead, I offer her my copyrighted poem by way of this website.
“I remember reading “Kitchen Logic” and being so enamoured with the poem,” she wrote in her email.
Thank you for the kind words. Thank you for bringing my canisters back to life.
“Kitchen Logic” is from my first book, Ring Finger, Left Hand published by (the former) Coteau Books in 2001. It won a Saskatchewan Book Award for Best First Book.