Hard Water

How many cups to a quart of stock?

I type it in with a shaky hand.

I’ve lived in this kitchen by the clock

in a strange and hungry land.

But the numbers won't stick to the brain,

they slide off like grease on a tile.

I search for the answer again and again

and scroll for a weary mile.

The blue glow of the phone is a ghost

in the steam of the boiling pot.

I’m the man who forgets the things he needs most

and remembers the things he should not.