Prompt Night #2 "There is something about the kitchen that invites intimacy" (January 2025)

 

There is something about the kitchen that invites intimacy

I remained a Stonehenge somehow even between the sheets 

Salty tears held their ground in my ducts 

You are beautiful 

I will be somewhere else in no time 

It was while haphazardly preparing you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the crusts cut off at 2am

laughing quietly over the kitchen island, fumbling the butterknife 

That I realized loving you might be why I was molded in flesh 

That I realized leaving you might be why I despise my late twenties 

The kitchen invites intimacy 

We dance barefoot on the tile while the chicken thaws on the counter 

The kitchen invites intimacy

The magnetic letters on my fridge spell M + F 4EVER

The kitchen invites intimacy

 we recite Mamet’s Boston Marriage, while I flip your grilled cheddar on sour dough 

“Your favorite meal as a kid”

You told me the evening I met you 

While we ate spaghetti I slaved over the stove top for, 

in an old house

With different roommates 

With different priorities 

With different schedules 

With our parents as our emergency contacts

What feels like eons ago 

It somehow has perpetually been

You and I 

In the kitchen

I think I need you like I need three meals a day 

The breakfast, lunch and dinner

I take daily at my counter 

Sitting opposite you 

The kitchen invites intimacy 

I was too young to invite intimacy.