Mary Stood In The Kitchen Poem by Mary Champion

Mary stood in the kitchen
overawed by the chaos around her -
piles of unclean crockery stacked in tottering towers,
leftovers languishing on spattered platters,
casseroles coated with superglued cinders.

She thought about the washing-up - despairing
and recalled the weary hours spent preparing,
she remembered the small fortune she had spent
on the ‘Finest', ‘Number One', ‘Taste the Difference'
ingredients.
The chopping and slicing
the trimming and dicing,
the split-second timing -
all to ensure simultaneous completion of every dish.
Now, in less than an hour,
it had come to this!
Never in the field of culinary creation, she knew,
had so much been reduced to so little by so few.