Him

Pans clatter and clang, the cutting board thumps,
your favourite knife makes its signature ringing scrape
as you slide it from the magnetic strip

I know these sounds so well. I can see you without looking
I know what you are doing every step of the process –
the scoring, the salting, the oiling
the oven door squeaks, the dish clatters
stainless steel on stainless steel

Heat hits flesh
Bubbles and blisters
Crackles and spits

Audibility gives over to olfaction
Promised feasts waft through vents, spurred by fans
Take over the house and drift through the neighbourhood
You are peeling carrots now, scooping seeds from squash,
dividing potatoes into even pieces – all while blowing a thin tune

(although tune might be too strong a word)

They used to ask me why… I would offer a flippant
He made me a roast dinner and the gravy was good

it was more than that, but

that would have been enough.

Pam Makin, originally from Melbourne, lives in South Australia. A marriage celebrant, she also writes poetry and short stories. She was a heat winner and runner-up at Spoken Word SA’s Summer Slam 2019, and is currently compiling a manuscript of poetry, “to get the written as well as the spoken poem out to an audience”. More can be found about Pam at her website here.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.