Kitchen Table, Simply Set
this is the story I wanted to tell
he could not tolerate the sounds of eating
she could not tolerate his being of his mother
gingham linen triangle spoon, fork
she turned on the range fan and the din dimmed
his leg ceased tapping its dull code
temporary steam from the bird rising
| Aubrey Lenahan |
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levelheaded: Kitchen Table, Simply Set
On the whole, this poem is sparsely and pointedly composed. We might call it “simply set.” It’s a couple lines of narrative and a handful of significant images arranged in a largely unadorned column. But, there is real emotion heft to what the poem does with all its simplicity. The word “tolerate,” repeated and applied to both “he” and “she,” feels hopeless, as if grinning and bearing it is the only possibility. Within the bounds of the poem, there is no leaving and there is no loving – only tolerating or “not tolerating.” What’s worse, someone cares enough to set the table with a folded, cloth napkin. Someone cares enough to “turn on the range fan” for the forthcoming steam of the teapot. But this care does not translate when it comes to the other person in the room.
Like the lines of the poem, the space between “gingham linen triangle” and “spoon, fork” enacts the careful arrangement of the flatware on the table. It’s the only moment that wavers from the poem’s straightforward, line-by-line structure. In an already spare poem, the poet’s decision to insert extra space lends the line an importance it might not otherwise have. The kitchen table, the part of a home that brings people together for nutritional and conversational sustenance, is smack in the middle of the poem, literally and figuratively. It’s smack in the middle of all the poem’s sorrow.
The poem is made more complex by its first and last lines. The first line is the only moment in which we’re removed from the kitchen scene, and it raises a number of questions. Is the speaker a character from the poem? Is the “story” is simply a story and not to be relied upon as truth? The last line, “temporary steam from the bird rising,” stands out as especially mysterious. It seems to describe a bird ornament on teakettle’s spout, but the bird rising from steam is an interesting choice in that it brings to mind a phoenix. It’s subtle and fleeting, but after all the anguish, we like to think there is a glimmer of hope in there somewhere.
– The Editors
