Almanac Poetry: Quietly Neurotic Domestic Interior
Melancholy, by Edvard Munch, oil on canvas, 1894. Private Collection. [Source: Wikimedia Commons.]
Quietly Neurotic Domestic Interior
‘In the last decades interest in hunger artists has declined considerably.’- Kafka
I won’t be having lunch today.
My girlfriend has left me
vegetable soup.
It’s in the fridge
but I will not eat it.
I’d need to employ
a bowl, a spoon, a saucepan
and it’s too much trouble.
Better to let the kitchen sink
remain in its present state
– pristine, gleaming and empty.
(Acknowledgement: poem previously published in Orpheus in the Undershirt, Ginninderra Press, South Australia, 2018.)
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Sacredly Profane, is available HERE
Read more Almanac Poetry HERE
If you would like to receive the Almanac Music and Poetry newsletter we will add you to the list. Please email us: [email protected]
To return to our Footy Almanac home page click HERE.
Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.
Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help things keep ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – CLICK HERE.
About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Enjoyed this one KD!
Thanks, Col. Pleased that you did!
I smiled on reading this poem … admiring and sympathising with the sentiment – I love me a pristine sink! But also admiring the poet’s self control. I also love me some soup! Thanks!
Cheers, Jane. Thanks for your amusing comments. They gave me a smile.
We can all find a reason for being unreasonable. The inescapable logic of the illogical. As a friend once told me “everybody is normal – until you get to know them better”. I feel I’m getting to know you better KD.
Wise words, PB.
I feel I’m getting to know myself better, too, though I think I’ve now progressed beyond the stage/state expressed in this poem, written quite a few years ago.