The Kitchen Shears Speak

by Dorothy Reinhold on July 20, 2012


Print This Post Print This Post The Kitchen Shears Speak

Oh, my poor, broken kitchen shears. After 25+ years of hard time, the central bolt just rusted into dust.

I’d like to eulogize my kitchen workhorse with a poem.  

Kitchen shears broken on ShockinglyDelicious.com The Kitchen Shears Speak

By Christianne Balk

This division must end.
Again I’m forced to amputate
the chicken’s limb; slit the joint,
clip the heart, snip wing from back,

strip fat from flesh, separate
everything from itself. I’m used,
thrown down by unknown hands,
by cowards who can’t bear to do

Wusthof kitchen shearsthe constant severing. Open and close!
Open and close. I work and never tell.
Though mostly made of mouth, I have no voice,
no legs. My arms are bent, immobile

pinions gripped by strangers. I fear
the grudge things must hold.
I slice rose from bush, skin from muscle,
head from carrot, root from lettuce,

tail from fish. I break the bone.
What if they join against me,
uncouple me, throw away one-half,
or hide my slashed eye? Or worse,

what if I never die? What I fear
most is being caught, then rusted rigid,
punished like a prehistoric
bird, fossilized, and changed

into a winged lizard, trapped while clawing
air, stuck in stone with open beak.

from Bindweed, 1985; Macmillan Press. Copyright 2001 by Christianne Balk.
All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission

Christianne Balk’s books include Desiring Flight (Purdue University Press) and Bindweed (Macmillan Press, Walt Whitman Award) where “The Kitchen Shears Speak” first appeared. Christianne’s poems have also been published in The Atlantic Monthly, Alhambra Poetry Calendar, Cirque, Prairie Schooner, The New Republic, and other journals and anthologies. See christiannebalk.com.

Kitchen shears with BandAid

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

Penny July 22, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Dorothy July 22, 2012 at 5:26 pm

Penny,
Thanks! Those do look good. I have a new pair of shears, from Cutco. http://www.cutco.com/products/product.jsp?itemGroup=77 I really love them, and am writing another post about what to do with your kitchen shears. Stay tuned!

Reply

Nancy Long July 21, 2012 at 9:13 am

sorry, I’d be lost w/o mine

Reply

natalie July 20, 2012 at 2:04 pm

TRAGIC

Reply

Lentil Breakdown July 20, 2012 at 12:37 pm

Get a new bolt, you dolt! (don’t hate me—it rhymed!)

Reply

Dorothy July 20, 2012 at 4:01 pm

Adair,
I hate you! 🙂

Reply

Connie Kaiser July 20, 2012 at 8:01 am

Perfect!

Reply

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