Almost Thanksgiving!

It's almost Thanksgiving (Yay!) so I thought I would post a poem about food. Bon appetit! - Jackie:

The Café Filtre

BY PAUL BLACKBURN

Slowly and with persistence

he eats away at the big steak,

gobbles up the asparagus, its

butter & salt & root taste,

drinks at a glass of red wine, and carefully

                             taking his time, mops up

               the gravy with bread—

The top of the café filtre is

copper, passively shines back, & between

mouthfuls of steak, sips of wine,

                             he remembers

               at intervals to

with the flat of his hand

the top removed,

                                       bang

at the apparatus,

create the suction that

the water will

                          fall through

                          more quickly

 

Across the tiles of the floor, the

cat comes to the table  :  again.

“I’ve already given you one piece of steak,

what do you want from me now? Love?”

                            He strokes her head, her

rounded black pregnant head, her greedy

     front paws slip from his knee,

     the pearl of great price

     ignored  .  She’s bored, he

bangs the filtre again, its top is copper

passively shines back  .

                                                                  Food & wine nearly

finished.

He lifts the whole apparatus off the cup  .  Merciful

God, will it never be done?                      Too cold

                                                                      already

to add cream and sugar, he offers the last

piece of steak with his fingers  .

                          She accepts it with calm

                                      dignity,

even delicacy  .  The coffee goes down at a gulp, it

is black

& lukewarm  .