kitchen burns (women’s work) (poem)
This is the way it’s always been
cooking dinner because no one else thinks to
crammed in between having everything else
because we have it all
and like everything else
you carelessly get splashed with soup
grab the hot dish
forget the potholder because
after all this is crammed in between everything else
but like everything else it’s the Most Important Thing
and wrapping up ice in a paper towel
holding on the burn is awkward
like everything else we’re supposed to be graceful at
I felt so accomplished when
I kludged together a burn salve
from eighteen old recipes that
would heal a kitchen burn
or a sunburn or
a windburn overnight
actually heal it
unlike a burn salve that just numbs the shouting nerves
telling you you’ve been burned
as if we didn’t know
because no matter what they tell you we know
that we will touch the cookie sheet with a bare hand
or pick up a pot without a potholder
or pull the sheet out of the oven and get
matching lines from the oven door on both forearms
This burn salve is a miracle, I thought
I hurt for one night and then it’s healed
without once wondering if my foremothers buried it
in the back of recipe books
because if you heal fast
it just means
you can go back to the oven
that much faster.
