Digital Paper: Food for the Dessert Island

Food for the Dessert Island

©Catherine Buca, 2007

1.

a block of cheese
peppery salt wafers and salmon
abundance begs hungry mouths
and conversation
Imagine how he swam upstream
he swam and swam against the current
and this curd and whey this cow
she milked, she milked
I hope her nipples did not chap
this cheese
so tasty, salty sweet

2.

coffee
richly dark, bitter chicory
a nutmeg and earthy smell that rests behind my eyes
a highland crop - leaves waxy green
plump drupes brightly crimson
shameful this bean waking strangers
coloring awareness and alacrity
wanton bean filling everyone’s cup
creamy milk calms the waters
She knows how to tame a tawny beverage
I hope it’s not too late

3.

Chocolate
food for the Gods, the sick, the rich
Silvery slick melting sweet
a succulent drug, a ransom, treasure tree
bitter, frothy juice spiced with sugar,
cacao fruit, you have come so far
A little roast, nib, winnow, and grind
And a new potent powder
A force of change
You dulcify me, you sweet talker you
I’m much nicer when you’re around
and it doesn’t take much

©Amy Brooks Gottesfeld

Amy Brooks added Gottesfeld to her name about five years ago and since then bore two more Gottesfelds with her husband Perry. In between diaper changes, she reads and imagines writing. She is a teacher-on-special-assignment in Oakland and coordinates the Writing Proficiency Project, http://www.oaklandwrites.org. Amy taught middle and high school in San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro and participated in the 1997 BAWP Summer Institute.

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Digital Paper is dedicated
to Jim Gray, Founder of the Writing Project

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