Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Broken Stove Poem

Broken Stove Poem

You, of the enameled steel variety,
Will burn no more of my cakes, cookies, and potatoes.
Your insulation long gone,
Was missing long before we made our heated acquaintance.
I will not miss the click, click, clicks of your gas igniter.
Nor will I mourn the small electrocution
Supplied by your ungrounded oven light switch.
I cannot speak for the young technician who was scarred
By your sparky shouting,
But "Workers Compensation" played at my lips.
He was happy to turn you in for a younger model.
Happy to lug you to the curb for the Freecycler
Who will take his chances on your capricious temper.
Your gleaming replacement heats quickly for me,
Like you never did.
Shiny and eager, her fiery sealed burners await my instructions.
Her long arm locks across her body
In a show of self-cleaning allegiance,
Unlike your not-easy-off-at-all interior.
Gold broken stove, I will not remember you warmly.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Deb,

Terrific! Be careful, there is no hatred worse than an old stove scorned! Did you mean "scarred" as opposed to "scared", and "gold" in the last line? I'd title this Ode to an Old Stove.

All's well here, family coming in for get together this weekend, then we're heading to Boston and Maine in mid-August to visit kids. Busy with teaching online summer course at Maritime, writing (Spectrum articles!) and preparing for fall seminars. Be well, say hi to John, catch up with you in August hopefully.

Love, Carl

Deb Schiff said...

Thanks, Carl.

Yes, indeed I meant scarred. A spark from the stove jumped up and bit the poor guy!!! Gold is the actual color of the stove. Finally, odes are specifically lyrical poems that have a particular format and structure. Since I'm not following that, I'm not calling it an ode, although I did think it resembled one in spirit.
Love to you and Barb!

Goddess Findings said...

WOW this is a terrific poem.... it's odd because my oven has been broken for about 2 months -stove top burners worked fine thank goodness because it was so long for the landlady could fix it! These cookies were my first sojourn with the new igniter mechanism!
Thanks for the comment on my vegan cookies--coming from an expert chocolateure (made up french word)such as yourself -I am honored! The Dark Chocolate Coconut Fancies would be my FAVORITE I can just tell from looking! Best of luck!
Janice

Deb Schiff said...

Thank you very kindly, Janice!

I like your made-up word. ;D