Gillian Carpenter
Tender
A mosaic of bright vegetables
slide from the chopping board
into a quickening of sweet oil
in cast iron. The sun on the back
of your neck, illuminating vertebrae
like warm stones; highlighting
muscles as you shimmy the pan,
jostle ingredients in a swirl
of parsley and thyme.
Now you down tools,
leave the open air kitchen to
lie on the beach; bury your feet
in a drift of hot, white sand,
confident that there will be
no burning.
You have left me in charge
of the rice with instructions
to wash it of its residue of starch,
and a lesson in seasoning.
Here I must stay,
my pearly charge being
thirsty as a new-born; vulnerable,
demanding, and easily spoiled.
I watch you between test forkfuls,
handsomely ruminating
on the waves, oblivious to the task
that persists under the sun’s blaze.
My skin is prickling as I try
to determine degrees of tenderness.
Page(s) 20
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The