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.

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

the 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.

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.

Tagged as: Christianne Balk, kitchen scissors, kitchen shears, poem, poem about scissors, poem about shears, poetry

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

Penny July 22, 2012 at 4:22 pm

I use these come apart shears. They are fantastic!
http://www.amazon.com/Wusthof-5558-1-Come-Apart-Kitchen-Shears/dp/B0000631ZM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342999312&sr=8-1&keywords=come+apart+kitchen+shears

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!

Nancy Long July 21, 2012 at 9:13 am