The Inner Sanctum Of My Stove

Author Corie Feiner

The Inner Sanctum Of My Stove

Corie Feiner

The smoke filled the inner sanctum 
of my stove, the oil splatter set aflame 
with what should have been breakfast and dinner
combined. 

My family slept upstairs like a bunch of late night 
vagabonds strewn on soup kitchen steps. 

If you would have entered my kitchen
at that very moment when I swung 	
the backdoor open to the cold wind, 
you would have taken off your shoes 
to enter such a holy ground.

You would have seen a woman quickly 
swiping the air with dish rags and the chant of
Please, please, please. The smoke alarm ominously 
hanging from the ceiling just waiting to scream. 

Sometimes prayer looks like this. A whirling 
dervish of opening windows and flapping doors, 
smothered grease fires and a mother dancing 
in the cosmos of cold wind and flame. 

---

Poems & Paraboles publishes work that illuminates, awakens, or opens a small window toward wonder. Some pieces are quiet. Some are bold. Some carry a moral thread, while others wander into the mysterious and ethereal.

Poets and storytellers are invited to submit their work. Selected pieces will be posted and featured throughout the year. See Submission Guidelines!

Previous Post

All Things Barren and Beautiful