It matters to me, much more than it should,
that drinking glasses stand sorted by size,
that bowls are neatly nested, that my good
dessert plates sparkle in their stack. The prize
that perfect order grants is hard to name.
It isn’t peace, exactly, but a sort
of temporary triumph in a game
that never ends, played not on field or court
but on these shelves, a three-dimensional
ungridded Scrabble board where dishes make
the words, unspellable but meaningful;
a plate misplaced means an unsettling break
in symmetry and sense. Neatness may not
win much, but there are times it’s all I’ve got.
*****
Jean L. Kreiling is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Home and Away (2025). Her work has been awarded the Able Muse Book Award, the Frost Farm Prize, the Rhina Espaillat Poetry Prize, and the Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Prize, among other honors.
‘Kitchen Cabinet Game’ was originally published in Crab Orchard Review.
Form in Formless Times 
Neatly done and with a killer last line.
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This is a poem after my own heart, in terms of its wonderful neatness… or perhaps I mean after my own head, since my own neatness is confined to the world of words…
FAMILIARITY WITH MY BEDSIDE TABLE
Some people put their lives in order every day
examine investigate catalogue discard;
others (me among them) would find that far too hard,
distinctions decisions tidiness – not my way!
Consider it positively as exploration –
no need for distant continents, if you’ve a shed;
the unknown’s in a kitchen drawer, under the bed…
But in the dark you need a strong sense of location:
where’s that sharp corner I found last night with my head?
Is the glass of water to the left or the right?
And will my hand spill it on its way to the light,
so it drenches the book, open, only half-read?
I don’t sort the table, I visualise it to know it –
you may think that’s too difficult – but not for a poet!
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A Rorschach test for formalists! Wonderful.
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