(These were chosen for The Literary Gourmet Anthology.)
How To Buy Lemons
Mr. Orologopoulos
taught me how to choose lemons,
devoted to my language skills,
as the only one in the class
who could pronounce his name.
I said it like music, rolling sing-song
off the tease of tongue,
enjoying each impossible syllable.
He offered me the gift of lemon-lore:
the smaller ones with pointed ends were male,
dry and pulpy, good rinds,
the globular ones were female,
juicy and soft, squeezable.
When I buy them for garnish or salad
I remember his hands, tenderly differentiating,
how he would kiss mine as I enunciated
Oro-lo-go-pou-los.
Once Upon a Picnic
This is how love unfolded,
potted meats spread on fresh thick bread,
strawberry tarts with kisses,
mindful birds, lustful squirrels,
lap of lake, whispers of tittering trees,
all nature mated in the fruits of earth
while we explored the surprise of plenty,
no more to need in the cool grass dessert
of each other.
Breaking Bread Affirms Life
There is communion in every meal shared,
true bread and wine salutation, however simple,
however elaborate.
In loved company we partake
of all that earth offers,
praise it with devoted cooking,
presenting with flair,
nourishment for every particle of our needs,
an act of life, memory-building.
Sweetness beyond wine-roses
to hold us together embracing light,
fending off with a toast, the long dark.
Katherine L. Gordon
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