Rushing in from an activity
of enforced abstinence
and tearing the wrapper off
cramming all eagerly
Remembering to take a little
with you next time
and nibbling slowly
at intervals to keep you going
Making preserves and garnishing
your pantry so that those Summer
flavours are there to sustain you
come Autumn and Winter
Building a shelf of seasonings
to keep the taste buds
tingling with excitement
against the threat of ennui
Savouring the memory of
past dishes – great feasts
whose memories you can still smell
forty years on – even when you’re not hungry
Handwritten recipes—a diary of
a life lived through food
each recipe conjuring time and place
– discovery of ingredients you came to love.
© Andrew Wilson, 2024
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, sanaarizvi in Poetics, invites us to write about what love means to us in light of the upcoming Valentine’s Day…
In my writing group, Deborah had the same idea and presented us with Love Like Salt by Lisel Mueller so this poem is written in the shadow of that one…