Jonathan Travelstead
Kitchen of Tomorrow
Two AM. Can’t sleep. Therefore it is reasonable
I am in my underwear sitting before the door of my smart fridge
that is sometimes transparent, depending on the words I use.
The cat clock’s pendulum tail tells me it is reasonable
I haven’t called my grandmother once in the eight years since
my Mother died. I stare, reasonably,
through the hologram advertisement for melatonin.
I stare beyond the blue led light within even the clear door.
Beyond farm eggs, beyond rainbow chard. To when appliances
soften their corners. When they lose their compressors,
the cold geam of amps. Grow skin
over their brushed surfaces. Listen, then respond.
When they help reconstruct my relationships into a blameless past.
The cat clock’s pendulum tail tells me this will be so.
About the writer:
Jonathan Travelstead served in the Air Force National Guard for six years as a firefighter and currently works as a full-time firefighter for the city of Murphysboro and as co-editor for Cobalt Review. Having finished his MFA at Southern Illinois University of Carbondale, he also turns a lathe, crafting pens under the name Scorched Ink Penturning. His first collection How We Bury Our Dead by Cobalt Press was released in March 2015, and Conflict Tours (Cobalt Press) was released in 2017.
Image: Hong Kong: City Lights at Night by Gene Kreyd. Mixed media. 120 x 100 cm. 2015. By permission. Gene Kreyd was the O:JA&L Featured Artist in April 2019.
