Saturday, April 29, 2023

Old Recipe

CLICH HERE TO HEAR AUTHOR READ


I am like an iron cauldron 

                  astir with nature's ingredients 

some thickly settled on the bottom 

                                    others lightly dissolved in the broth

and when the temperature rises

                                passions bubble  

to the surface 

                            and steam

and steam 

                            and steam

               


and after some cooling time 

                                           an aroma wafts like something 

                                                                       new in the air

but it's not      new

                    it's an old recipe 

                                              lifted from a stained page 

handed down for generations, 

                                            every step followed with slight 

           difference, and if 


the end-product tastes 

                                              off 

add salt -

                            

it's how we do it  

            you and me

                        you get off 

from seeing me 

                          come to a boil

cause it leaves 

a sticky residue 

like sap from the tree

dark and sweet.

2 comments:

Ken Stollon said...

Love the metaphor. It's a great description of "stuff" we're made of: "some thickly settled on the bottom/others lightly dissolved in the broth". Bubbling and steaming ... this is where the aroma comes from, but it's also am image of violent and anger? And as much as the aroma is a pleasing one, our sense of uniqueness and individuality is a chimera. It's an old recipe. We are much the same as our ancestors. Same ingredients, same taste. We're not so special.

And yet ... why can't we be a product of an "old recipe" and still be special, still be unique, even if it's just a very nuanced sense of individuality?

Glen said...

The older I get the less ‘individual’ I feel. Or rather it feels more authentic to acknowledge my essence as being an emergent aspect of universal material and energy. Boy that’s a mouthful. But I think you get what I mean.