Apple Bundt Cake
Ingredients: 3 cups flour1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon baking soda1 cup vegetable oil1 cup granulated sugar1 cup packed brown sugar2 eggs3 cups diced raw cooking...
Matron
Winter fruit—less sweet, more sturdy—doesn’t temptthe palate likesummer’s fragile offerings.
Lipstick
red for the whoreyou called me, pinkfor the party girl,any color at allto call a man,color determineswhich man comes(or if one comes at all,perhaps)....
Whiskey
For Mark Tamsula, Richard Withers, and Sam BayardWhere does this music come from?How to make fiddle and banjo dancein and out, make sounds sometimessimple as...
Carving
Lights rise on a cutting board on which rests a turkey. A serving-dome covers the bird. DAVIS holds a carving knife; his daughter SARAH holds a piercing...
Nothing
“Nothing seems to be right anymore. Everything tastes a little waxy.” —Bembo making moanAfter a visit to the dentist, friend,consider the bitter truths of...
Perfumed Estrangement
It happened at the mallLike most of my formative experiencesI was eight - maybe nine - years oldLooking at the captivating perfume bottles in the cosmetics...
The Advent of Feeding
Started as breast milk with lullabySource cuddled me to sleep when I could hardlyContaining so many minerals like a valleyFilling me, leaving protruding my...
Where the Cicadas Sing
We live where their shells litter the land,where their songs spice the hot air.Roaring and deafening little insectssweetening our summers like lemonto cold,...
Chicken-Vegetable Noodle Soup
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken roaster or 3 bone-in chicken breasts, fully cooked in a large stock pot or slow-cooker crockpot, stock reservedReserved stock2...
Language
In the voice of Samanta SchweblinGravid, rigid, inexact, oralityhas always made me uncomfortable.Consider how easy it is to open the mouthand say something...
Untitled
Last breaths dilly dally like colorful fall leaves fallingTo the groundin reverse.They dilly dally upwardOut of the buildingInto the skyPast the cloudsInto...
Thus the poet
Thus thinks the poetThere might just be somewhereelse, elsewhere words are spread intoThus the paper is convinced already,it handles thoughts thrown up by...
Cold Shoulder
Your memory scrabblesat my waking dreams sometimeslike starving juncos in winter’s windscratching at the snow for food.It seems you slipped awaydown some...
Reverie
For JenniferDawnhead flashes improbable groundof essence. Then thunder. Then leapfrom bed to computer only to findphilosophical twaddle: Aristotleand his to...
The Ugly, The Bad, and The Despicable
ICastle by the shores of the sea,Sea of blood tainted the precious silk,Silk of deceit woven in lies,Lies here great tragedy of the greed,The sheep herded in...
Zen and the Art of Pest Management in the Organic Garden
When I had a regular practice of sitting meditation, I sat early on a summer’s morning on a zafu in my screened porch before going to our large organic...
Rain Delay: Tough Call
After Norman Rockwell, “Tough Call” (1949)Play ball, Rocky:hey umps, yes, I’m weighing in here,play ball, Rocky,a minor inundation; hell,possibly because...
Solo
O Lord, you God of vengeance,you refute the idea of coincidence.For example, solo, known also as alone,can separate into so low, which ishow many (myself...
Constellation in a Starry Night
(With apologies to Vincent Van Gogh)Suffering spiral shadows contorted in angry pain,Wrung by a controlling force, Taurus ragesAnd rams his skull forward...