Bob Lucky

Kitchen Magic

dinner party
grinding grains of paradise
for groundnut soup—
the plumber fixing the sink
asks, what’s that smell

The cheapest way to renovate a kitchen is to buy a cookbook. But it must be about a cuisine unfamiliar, exotic to you, Ghanaian, for example. Preferably in a language you’ll have to learn. Twi is a challenge for the tone deaf but at least it’s written in the Roman alphabet. Next, there’s the cost of a round-trip ticket to Accra, and accommodations and expenses for a couple weeks. Spend time in Makola Market shopping for ingredients, especially spices and jars of shito. Eat a lot. Try tuo zaafi, which uses dawadawa and ayoyo leaves; fufu and goat light soup; and red-red if you’re vegetarian. Fly home with stuffed suitcases and invite your friends over for a Ghanaian feast. They won’t notice how out-of-date your split-pea green fridge is or the old grease stains on the wall behind the stove. No one will care the counter tops are cracked. It may cost you, but that’s the cheapest way to renovate a kitchen.

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About the Author

Bob Lucky is the author most recently of My Thology: Not Always True But Always Truth (Cyberwit, 2019) and the chapbook Conversation Starters in a Language No One Speaks (SurVision Books, 2018), which was a winner of the James Tate Poetry Prize in 2018. Lucky lives in Portugal, where he is working his way through the regional cheeses and wines.

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