"Rain" by Jennifer Givhan
Noise above us, its clinking
of spoons. The months
like popcorn on the stove;
but there was this:
steak on a plain ceramic plate
and you with only a butter knife.
It resembled a heart;
still, you ate. I remember
watching the drippings down your chin,
like watching myself
butterflied to your pink
lips, afterward, kernels
pitting your teeth
and such relief, that sudden rain.
Didn’t we drown
a crockpot in a kitchen sink?
It’s summertime; monsoons:
but you’re not hungry.
__________________________________
Jennifer Givhan was a Pen Rosenthal Emerging Voices Fellow, a St. Lawrence Book Award finalist, a Vernice Quebodeaux Pathways Prize finalist for her poetry collection, and a fellowship recipient in the MFA program at Warren Wilson College. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in over fifty journals and anthologies, including Best New Poets 2013, Prairie Schooner, DASH Journal (where her poem won the 2013 poetry prize), Indiana Review (where her poem was a finalist for the 2013 poetry prize), Contrary, Rattle, and The Los Angeles Review. She teaches composition at Western New Mexico University.
Noise above us, its clinking
of spoons. The months
like popcorn on the stove;
but there was this:
steak on a plain ceramic plate
and you with only a butter knife.
It resembled a heart;
still, you ate. I remember
watching the drippings down your chin,
like watching myself
butterflied to your pink
lips, afterward, kernels
pitting your teeth
and such relief, that sudden rain.
Didn’t we drown
a crockpot in a kitchen sink?
It’s summertime; monsoons:
but you’re not hungry.
__________________________________
Jennifer Givhan was a Pen Rosenthal Emerging Voices Fellow, a St. Lawrence Book Award finalist, a Vernice Quebodeaux Pathways Prize finalist for her poetry collection, and a fellowship recipient in the MFA program at Warren Wilson College. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in over fifty journals and anthologies, including Best New Poets 2013, Prairie Schooner, DASH Journal (where her poem won the 2013 poetry prize), Indiana Review (where her poem was a finalist for the 2013 poetry prize), Contrary, Rattle, and The Los Angeles Review. She teaches composition at Western New Mexico University.
