Out Of The Knife Drawer

We are three women in the kitchen this afternoon

my sister and our dear friend.

It's  muggy warm in the garden

but raining

So we're adapting our BBQ plans.

Slicing courgettes into rafts

for the griddle pan

chunking up long cigar aubergines

for the oven

crushing garlic pearls

for the quartered chestnut mushrooms

grating Parmesan cheese 

 and whizzing up pine nuts

for the perfumed basil pesto.

The game is to chop and slice and stir and crush using only one long sharp knife - 

nickel-free

so our friend can breathe more easily.

So we share the knife and measure with a plastic spoon, 

 stir with a wooden spatular 

and leave the nickel cutlery in the drawer.

The other game is to cheer me up.

Which they do

magnificently.

Whooshing out all that locked up life

inside me

that laugher

which too often

sulks

at the bottom of

 the knife drawer.

But longs to be freed.