Getting into your pantry

The following sonnet was written while attending a Faber Academy Workshop session facilitated by Jo Shapcott ("Of Mutability," Costa Book of the Year 2010) in London, England.

Getting into your pantry

I hold my breath and count to ten
to string the moment out; I get
only as far as six before
easing the door and slipping inside.
Each packet, jar and Tupperware pot
tingles at my touch and sings
through my fingers. The saffron sparkles
at the back of a dark jostling shelf.

The cardamoms, cloves and cinnamon sticks
spring from the jars, the basmati
rice shimmies to the shushing of breakers
fingering shingle on a Goan beach.
The ingredients line themselves up like a recipe
they know will induce you to stay the night.

(c) 2012 Poetrivia

In the mix

The following poem was written while attending a Faber Academy Workshop session facilitated by Jo Shapcott ("Of Mutability," Costa Book of the Year 2010) in London, England.

In the Mix

Crank the cold handle
and watch the silvered blades refract
halogen white and mixing-bowl blue
in their scalpel-clean steel.

Crank the cold handle
and the whispering gears prattle
as the blades slash and slither
up to the neck in batter.

Crank the cold handle
if only to feel at one
with a mechanical joy modernity
has consigned to the bottom drawer.

(c) 2012 Poetrivia