The Stubborn Sagging Kitchen Cabinet Door
Cătălina Florina Florescu
Artwork part of ‘Time’ (Issue 15)
The Artist
Born in Romania, Dr Catalina Florina Florescu came to the States at 23 to study for her PhD. in Comparative Literature/Medical Humanities. She thought she would leave once she earned that degree. Instead, 25 have passed since she came to this country. She introduces herself as a Romanian born, American author. Over the years, she published 11 books, several book chapters, and essays. Dr Florescu wrote her first play in 2011, and back then she thought that "Mia" would be her first and last play. She was wrong again. That play was the beginning of a wonderful adventure with plays and workshops in the US and Europe. Her most recent achievement was the publication of the only trilogy in the world on breast cancer: Staging Breast Cancer Trilogy. In 2017, she published an entire collection of poems, The Night I Burned My Origami Skin. More about her: http://www.catalinaflorescu.com/
Pain is a clear sign of evolution.
Without it,
we could not still
be here.
We fix ourselves a drink
when we can’t fix ourselves.
Why wasn’t that the first lesson in surviving?
Opposite,
the stubborn sagging kitchen cabinet door
sings her freedom.
Grafted in a suburban kitchen,
the tree of knowledge
delivers hope
of endurance.
The Science
I have always been intrigued by the evolution at micro- and macro-levels, of time as a way to measure said evolution and more and give us a sense of transformation and presence simultaneously. The poem submitted today is an inquiry about the journey that humans have faced when they are in pain, which becomes another, however imprecise, tool to measure time. In this context, the question is how to make all elements, human and non-human, attest symbiotically to life as it passes and happens on Earth.
The Theme
Time is just as real as our daydreams are and, in this poem, I was reflecting on how an ordinary object interjects in our quest for what it is to be embodied. In other words, to have a body is to be in space and time, in constant change.
Copyright statement. This work is published under the CC BY-NC-SA license