Introduction to the Kitchen, and: Unemployment Office—Right

Burney 15 Jeannette Burney Introduction to the Kitchen This clay pot belonged to Grandma— who looked exactly like me and died of colon cancer. It was made by hand in Mexico. It says "HECHO A MANO" underneath. When you look at the marks of paint, you can read the mind of the maker— who showed us how to love our work 30 years ago. Things made by hand are interesting because they show us different ways to love. This madonna, for instance, from a Mexican nativity scene bears a thumbprint under the base. It belongs to a man who is dead by now. A signature, a legacy, a reminder of my own mortality. I wept at the grave of my father out of pity—his power could not prevail against what was bigger than him. A man of mind with a failed heart. I pitied myself, in truth, because I must surely be overpowered someday, like him. Then we will both lie helpless to the elements. Adrienne's mother said it takes ambition to be a virtuoso. Why try? So what if you make 1000 plastic madonnas? They say nothing. You can read no message underneath. When I hear Van Cliburn play Tchaikovsky's First, I know he is no virtuoso. He is a lover. His hands secrete their moisture into the keys, also made by hand, 16 the minnesota review as he delivers his love— one piece at a time. I write these lines by hand for no production value but because my hands must make their way somehow. This is one way. Unemployment Office—Right Nobody wants to be here. Or rather, the government wants you to go away. That's why the room is divided against itself: room dividers, partitions, thick poles become an obstacle course. We fill up the chairs, the government empties them. And that's why we are called applicants: we apply ourselves to the government like shoe polish that wears off. Only the government stays. You got your pros and you got your New Claims. Pros go to Room 2 for Interview, while New Claims go to Information for a little wait in line. The line curls around an empty desk like a single antenna, while the Info. Man drinks water from a styrofoam cup in the hall, watching another line under a sign suspended from the acoustic ceiling tile as if by magic. It says: Room 3. Today the Info, man gets off at 5. He'll make 64 dollars by then. ...