Friendly fire – by Tricia Dearborn

Poetry
Written By Tricia Dearborn
ISLAND | ONLINE ONLY

the reassuring foof as it ignites      

flickering blue under a small saucepan

coaxing the milk to warmth for cocoa

 

puffing up the dumplings, alchemising

sugar and butter and golden syrup

to sumptuous stickiness

 

thickening fragrant juices

in the pan the chicken roasted in

to gravy

 

now to find it gives rise to more

than this nurturing, useful heat —

products of combustion

 

silent poisons

I knew nothing of

the secret danger in the familiar

 

familiar like your warm, instructive tone

(you and my mother were teachers, instruction

the element I swam in)

 

as you soaped your hand, explained

what your hand was about to do

and why

 

the stove and its aldehydes, oxides, monoxide

the bathtub and its slick betrayals

the noxious after-effects

 

of naked trust ▼

Image: Pruthvi Sagar - Unsplash

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Tricia Dearborn

Tricia Dearborn is an award-winning poet, writer and editor. Her latest books of poetry are Autobiochemistry and She Reconsiders Life on the Run. Her work has been widely published in literary journals and in anthologies including Fishing for Lightning: The spark of poetry, The Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry, and Contemporary Australian Poetry. She has been guest poetry editor for various literary journals, including Cordite 112: TREAT (2024), and a judge for the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize. She is currently working on a new poetry collection with the support of a grant from Create NSW. Find her on Twitter/X (@TriciaDearborn) and Facebook

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