This timid heart a 200bpm rabbit
not like that you vulgarian
like a frightened excitable permanently pulsating
come on
mammal living some say existing
largely underground
afrightened and ascurvy
Riddled with the pestilence
of forgotten decades
and winters long gone
which laid down their stains
upon the landscape
frosted thistles and tree circles
yet all it takes is a kind word
Oh Mr Dickens
a mere sniff never mind a teaspoonful of gruel
the tiniest glimmer
of hope in the form
of a one-line response
No matter how indifferent, ineffectual
or shadow insolent
just keep
hanging on
that's what you do best
Just keep hanging on
until that one day...
There is no longer one more day
but at least you held on with
elasticated hope until that final day which
if you care to think about it
is something, but then again
Every word is a choice
The notebook page is hungry
She needs verbs
Her blank page excites me
Verbs are my favorites too
I give her a teaspoonful of jumping, dancing, and twirling
She gulps that down with gusto
Gives me a nod
I feed her a tablespoon of whirling, skipping and hopping
Followed by a cup of adjectives
I like her to have a balanced diet
Exciting, thrilling, beautiful, marvelous, entertaining
More adjectives? Black, salty, red, inky, personable
Where are my nouns? The page asks.
I ponder. Dragon? Unicorn? Witch? Pillow case?
She laughs
Pillowcase it is.
I take out my pen.
A ninety-two year-old whirling twirling pillowcase was having
An exciting, marvelous, beautiful entertaining visit, wowing
The other women in the next church pew.
He starts with the natural order of things,
thinks
wash bedsheets,
been pushing chores aside -
that's just natural.
Done with saccharine,
from now on
teaspoonful of honey
at least until
the year-old jar
stops oozing.
Corn flakes gone stale,
the days fall out of sleep
way sooner than they should,
and that's hard to do - naturally.
Order comes and goes.
Mold grows blue bread
nothing last as long as fungus.
It's the predicable
that catches him unawares.
Nature chugs along,
small birds stop singing by noon,
maybe he forgot to hear them,
natural orders arrange
his face
for all the foreseeable day
then bored with its cosmic game -
leaves him alone.
I used to imagine that the body
was a sort of fleshy gospel, bound together
by mind and ligaments.
Years of smutch, and oily reduction,
daily, a thin scum to be skimmed -
a process of dross elimination,
but each year there is a teaspoonful of loss
that cannot be explained, made up or accounted for,
more a lessoning and not an alchemy.
If this kind of culinary reduction
keeps losing the fat of me
I will be as nothing,
and maybe that’s the point.
Spirit and flesh have been boiling together.
Years of smutch, and oily reduction,
and each day a thin scum to be skimmed.
A job for a Chef de Cuisine,
a kitchen phantom
who though never seen, has been
keeping the suspension from separating,
the pot from thickening too much
with a pinch of this and that.
I used to imagine that the flesh
was a sort of gospel, bound strongly together
by mind and ligaments,
but each year there is a teaspoonful of loss
that cannot be made up or accounted for.
Are British Politicians a Little Potty?
At the end of Faust Part Two
Goethe wrote something most true.
The eternal lies in things of time,
the stone you throw, the mount you climb.
the little bird that chirps and sings,
the honey bee that flies and stings
This logic, to its end pursued,
the British teapot must include.
A teaspoonful per person tot,
but, don't forget: one for the pot!
Boiling water then pour in,
Tepid water, 'twere a sin.
Now you let the teapot 'stand,'
or else the taste you'll get is bland.
but let no other danger lour
by waiting more than half an hour.
Soaked too long tea leaves release
what may disturb your stomach's peace.
Persistence, up to a point, does good
Beyond that point you're stuck in a wood.
PASTA: A FORK OF HEAVEN
In a pot of bubbling boiling water,
I drop hard nine inches long bundle of farfelles..
Minutes passed,between my fingertips,
I pressed one strand, al- dente!
In a platter glittering white,
I form a fist of fresh-cooked pasta noodles,
pouring a hot scoop of white
creamy silky sauce made from:
parmesan and pecorino
melted, blended in a saucepan,
flavored more with a savory stock,
tossed of shallots, saffron and lean meat.
The sauce must be rich enough
coating all the threads of farfelles...
Garnishing it with grated cheese,
teaspoonful crunchy diced bacon,
a pinch of chopped flat leaf parsley...
Voila! Who could refuse this tasty fork of heaven?
__________________________________________________
***farfelle - a type of pasta: thick and wide noodles
al -dente - a pasta noodle cooked all the way through except in the center being slightly undone
CONTEST name: DIDACTIC FOOD
~~3rd place~~
1:54pm, September 09, 2015