santos scribes

burnt cookie sheets and  

cutting boards with 

cuts older than  

both children 

cream cheese smears of  

everything bagels gone by 

unidentifiable black and  

yellow bits of  

spongey, slimy  

What-Have-Yous 

last night’s ________________ 

soaking in the dinner pan 

5 cups of  

assorted measurement  

for sugars and  

nuts 

and blueberries and  

seeds

and  

bread flour  

(a complete set) 

coffee-kissed 

mugs, spilt tea leaves and  

a mesh wire ball 

what will tomorrow 

bring? coffee beans ground into  

grinds that miss the  

black compost bucket and  

gather like ants in  

the sink’s deep pockets and  

in the tile grooves above  

puddled coffee from 

this morning’s traveling mug(s) 

lukewarm & waiting for 

soapy sponged hands 

a purple plastic plate matches  

size not color of  

the rainbow-colored rest

crusted oatmeal 

gelatinous jelly 

stuck pancake batter 

banana threads 

chipped Portuguese porcelain 

peanut butter-soaked spoon(s) 

jagged blades, pointed forks 

and the good knife that  

took time to  

get use to and  

water  

of course there’s water  

drops and sprays and 

rivers and 

pools 

today it’s muddy and  

yellow  

globbed and  

floating with 

the residual fat of 

an animal 

or maybe it’s  

just the  

oil of  

an olive 

about this poem

this week my kids were home on spring break. finding designated time to write was sparser than usual, so I kept a sheet of paper on a clipboard in the kitchen & made lines with what I saw…thanks for reading- xo, s.