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Notes About The Poem

Planche de Chair Cuite

To Love Well Is to Eat Eternally

by Daniel Henry Rodgers

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"The wine was Rose' and smiles were knives for those pearls clung to their throats like pale leeches. A feast for the tongue and famine for the soul, their cheap perfume could not drown the scent of Jasmine." - Poet

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Planche de Chair Cuite

She was not invited

She was arranged

They never wanted Jasmine 
not the woman who brought basil-clean hands
and pomegranate soap 
who harmonized soliloquies into pastries 
while they offered only 
hinges rusted shut

She was not guest

She was garnish

Not Jasmine the flower 
but Jasmine the bulb 
strangled in its own clay
frost biting at the marrow 
buried beneath their polite 
rejections

She spoke once 
deliberate deliberate

If they must eat me let them chew gently

She coughed candied TB 

They dabbed napkins

They did not hear

Their mouths were full of false forgiveness 
they never meant 
to swallow

I did not mourn my wife

I prepared her

Not with grief 
but with brine and balsam

I weighed her mercy 
in ounces

Glazed her regret 
with saffron

Pressed juniper into joint 
tied thyme to tendon

She was not embalmed

She was emulsified

She was not buried

She was basted

I laid her upon the charcuterie board 
the very board once deemed 
too rustic for their hosting

Now it would hold 
truth

They came as they always came 
teeth lacquered for appetite 
grief corseted in black velvet

Heels ticking like guilt's 
metronome

They hovered

They hunkered

They hungered

Is that veal

No

Something richer

It finishes like fine wine rinsed 
in rosemary

They did not recognize her
They had never truly tasted her 
before
infused
braised

I smiled 
cleaver-clean

And in one tremor 
one breath too human 
I heard her voice 
behind my ear

They chew too quickly slow them down

Still I served

By dessert their cheeks flushed 
with meat-salt

One moaned that her tongue felt redeemed

Another sighed that something inside 
was singing

They laughed

They praised the reduction

They took 
seconds

They did not taste her life 
only her labor 
lacquered in glaze 
salted with absence

When they left 
chairs scraping back their guilt 
like confessional doors

the room emptied of hunger 
but not of presence

I remain

The cellar exhales
marrow-cold

Her portrait governs the shadows 
no oils 
no frame

Just aspic and regret

Beneath 
her apron 
sanguine-stiff and rosemary-scented 
bind with singed benedictions

And pinned below 
the final course

a recipe card 
salt-stained 
signed not in ink 
but glaze

To serve cold

Always cold

In her own 
hand

To Love Well Is to Eat Eternally

She said this first

They say it now

I slice her memory thin 
upon my tongue

She lives between chews 
but sometimes I taste her scream 
beneath the salt 
a rasp beneath the glaze

Sometimes the knife 
shakes

Just a tremor

A shudder

The cellar breathes back 
cold 
heavy 
watching

And in the gathering damp dark 
I hear it still

the sound of gentle 

chewing

I never stopped serving

I never stopped tasting

She never stopped feeding them

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Bill Baker Date: 8/19/2025 4:27:00 PM Can the dark side shine? Absolutely! Brilliant Dramatic poetry, Daniel. Your use of metaphor was intriguing and thorough. The pettiness of high society can be thoughtless and cruel, but revenge can seem so justified when reflected back at those that project ugliness upon others. This was totally engaging and a real "Poe like" thriller. extremely pleasing and entertaining. You are a master storyteller, my friend. Reading your poetry today has been such a pleasure. Thanks for sharing Bill Login to Reply

I Am Anaya Date: 8/14/2025 8:16:00 AM Those were some Tapas! Emotional nourishment. Consumed is her soul, with no souls of their own. Theirs is an unkind nature, and cannibalism is served cold, digesting patronization lingers. A quote speaks volumes, Jasmine haunts with her considerate scent, overpowering evils commune. Hauntingly sublime Daniel, I'm chilled! A dark tasty treat. August blessings __Anaya Login to Reply Daniel Henry Rodgers Date: 8/15/2025 12:38:00 PM Dear Anaya, I am always grateful for your comments because I believe that you have felt the depths of the poem and the message I was conveying. I had thought about holding off with this until October, but I wanted to release it now as a preview to October. Blessings, My Dear Anaya, Daniel

Paige Hind Date: 8/12/2025 12:43:00 PM Wow, Daniel. Woah, this IS RAW. So much said it hits the superficial like daggers. Is this about someone who passed? Regardless, it is a gift to read. Login to Reply Daniel Henry Rodgers Date: 8/15/2025 12:36:00 PM Dear Paige, thanks for coming and consuming my gothic poem. I felt Poe muse moving in me. Lol! Blessings, My Dear Paige, Daniel

Rowena Velasco Date: 8/9/2025 12:57:00 AM This poem’s vivid food imagery and emotions create a haunting, intimate feel. It’s raw and powerful, leaving a lasting impression. Login to Reply Daniel Henry Rodgers Date: 8/15/2025 12:34:00 PM Dear Rowena, thank you my friend and I am very grateful for your visit and your note. Blessings, My Dear Rowena, Daniel

Anne Winter Date: 8/8/2025 6:52:00 PM Dearest Daniel, your poem is hauntingly beautiful and it lingers long in the mind. The way you the endings of your poems is absolutely brilliant! It takes almost so many years to move on from a heartbreak for people but when it comes to grief or funerals, people just forget all about it as soon as they leave. Maybe they do not know how grieve in a healthy way, I always wondered. Your poems have a strong power to change the way one thinks. With love and respect always, Anne Login to Reply Daniel Henry Rodgers Date: 8/15/2025 12:33:00 PM Dear Anne, thanks for coming and seeing my more gothic side to my writing. I am always highly influenced by Poe when I write this type of poem. I thought that here is a young woman who was rejected by the other town women for multiple reasons and finally accepted by them in a very gothic way as they unknowingly consumed her, thinking it was just elegant food being served at her funeral reception. Blessings, My Dear Anne, Daniel

Sara Etgen-Baker Date: 8/8/2025 4:54:00 PM absolutely transformative....the comparisons are unique and thought provoking. Consuming emotions is probably psychologically sound rather that swallowing food, etc., instead to mask them. Sometimes I think our culture does grief 'too fast.' Excellent, Daniel. have a blessed evening, Sara Login to Reply Daniel Henry Rodgers Date: 8/15/2025 12:30:00 PM Dear Sara, thank you for reading one of my Poe-esque poems where Jasmine was accepted after death without the women of the town knowing what they were truly eating. Blessings, My Dear Sara, Daniel

Jay Narain Date: 8/8/2025 10:05:00 AM Planche de Chair Cuite masterfully fuses culinary ritual with haunting emotional truths. It transforms memory into a dish—and thereby, into a verdict. The piece excels in blending sensory precision with emotional complexity, rendering grief into something that can be served, consumed, and remembered—if only they consume it slowly enough to feel what they have lost. Login to Reply Daniel Henry Rodgers Date: 8/15/2025 12:28:00 PM Hello Jay, wonderful seeing your note today, and I am very appreciative of it. When I started to think about the storyline before I wrote it, I thought, wouldn't it be like Poe, that here is a young woman, a wife, who was rejected by her town, and when they came to her funeral reception, they enjoyed the food made by her husband, the town butcher. They enjoyed her without ever knowing that it was truly her. Blessings, My Friend, Daniel

Kim Rodrigues Date: 8/8/2025 9:13:00 AM What an interesting and haunting write! The imagery is impeccable! Love the quote with its pearls like pale leeches! Poetry can be good’n dark, makes its mark with a thudding cross-like exclamation point! A fave! we are so blessed to have your words, dear poet Daniel! Login to Reply Daniel Henry Rodgers Date: 8/15/2025 12:25:00 PM Dear Kim, I thought about holding off on this poem until October, when more of these dark poems are received in a Halloween light. I like to think that I have a little bit of Poe in my writing. Thank you! Blessings, My Dear Kim, Daniel

Kim Rodrigues Date: 8/8/2025 9:13:00 AM Fave! Login to Reply