Mary Schellenberg
The sound of crackling admits an urgency
into the mind of a distracted chef;
and the pot boils over.
It takes five minutes for a pot to boil –
twenty for it to evaporate;
five minutes late to the pot,
and it has begun its frantic scurry over the edge.
Twenty minutes,
and that boiling pot has reduced to nothing
but scarce white flakes:
a reminder of what has evaporated.