Better Than Waffle House

I never actually used the tea kettle
It reminded me of my kitchen growing up
It became a gimmick, a joke
Also, a smokey mess under uncareful friends

The wood feels cheap: Home Depot quality
Plastic handles, crappy serration, broken scissors
The knives are cheap: Chinese consumer flotsam
Eight years on, they still live in our kitchen

Hefty, white, ceramic plates with scalloped edges
Unmicrowavable, unremarkable, and frankly undesirable
When all others are dirty, but I still want leftover pizza
We keep them because they're there and they pad out the cabinets

In that lounge, upstairs in that church
With Chinese delivery, family, and friends
I cut every ribbon in defiance, to laughs
Then returned it all: gifts into cash