11.14.2023

MURDER IN THE KITCHEN

a stained tablecloth
     was the only evidence

the dishwasher purred

the white stovetop gleamed     spotless
     as a hospital chapel

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NOTE: The title of this “exploded” tanka is of course the title of the first cookbook by Alice B. Toklas. After the death of Gertrude Stein, Toklas inherited the art collection the couple had shared, but Stein’s family was able to appropriate many of the pieces, among them works by Pablo Picasso, because the Stein-Toklas marriage had no legal recognition (see Linda Wagner-Martin, Favored Strangers: Gertrude Stein and Her Family, p. 269). For the rest of her life, Toklas depended on financial contributions from friends in addition to what little she earned from her two cookbooks and the occasional features she wrote for American newspapers and magazines.