Robbi Nester
"Lemon"
I have heard that we are all just extravagant instruments
of the gustatory urge, made to transport it to the nearest
source of nourishment—an orchard of peaches perhaps,
still rock-hard nubbins at the base of embryonic blooms,
or an aquarium stocked with a school of silver-sided tuna
behind bright glass. I awake in my round bed in the center
of everything that is, the room a yellow wedge fragrant
as summer and as bright. How, in fact, have I managed
to sleep in all this brightness? On these soft yellow feathers
full of liquid like a canary without any song?
Included in the manuscript, Every Dish Requires a Death.
“Lemon” was also reprinted from my book, Other-Wise (Kelsey, 2017)
"Cooking Your Way Home"
Today, while morning light still slants
onto the cold tile floor, when the house
is quiet, put on some John Prine tunes.
Lay out ingredients for a recipe you’ve
cut out of the paper every year, but never
made—salmon gefilte fish. At the farmer’s
market, choose thick bouquets of dill
and parsley, woody twigs of thyme. Later,
under your knife, their fragrance will bring
the market home. Your mother thought
that jarred was good enough; you disagree.
There’s never been a live carp swimming
in your bathtub, as in your grandmother’s.
Instead, use a food processor, boxed
matzo meal, not just the brunt of a blunt
knife, not even half as sharp as hers.
Now, when you’re spending so much time
alone, it’s time to savor the intention,
join with generations of women
making the same dish for a hundred
years, dropping soft fistfuls
of fish bound with beaten egg
into the broth, feather light and sweet.
Included in the manuscript, Every Dish Requires a Death.
MORE ABOUT ROBBI NESTER
Robbi Nester is a retired college educator, author of five books of poetry and editor of 3 anthologies. She currently hosts two virtual poetry readings held monthly on Zoom. Her work is forthcoming or appeared recently in One Art, Thimble, Vox Populi, MacQueen’s Quinterly, The Keystone Anthology of Pennsylvania Poetry, The Nature of Our Times, and other places. Learn more at her website, http://robbinester.net.