And now for JuPo - 10 poems, one every three days. My goal is to write poems longer than 25 lines, and to assign different challenges as I go along. The first poem's challenge was to evoke a sense of place.


Poem 1

At the Lobster Roll

Come with me again to our country café
tucked in among the eastern farmlands
spread parallel to the sea
and its welcoming white plank walls,
gingerbread framed doors, tete-a-tete rooms
with Tiffany windows and cloth geraniums
sprawling from sills.

The open pit will greet us with a belch
of flames as we walk by and watch the chefs
pirouette around its jaws in seeming melee,
brandishing knives and pokers, shouting
orders to underlings busy battering food.

We’ll sit further in, where noise and light
dim; where red checkered tables are candled
and fresh flower sprigged. The fireplace
will yawn sweet warmth while cherry wood
crackle-pops in its belly. Firefly lights floating
overhead will mimic the night sky as the slender
scent of fresh fish filters in from the galley
to mingle among snippets of muted discourse.

Soon a red-aproned waitress will bring
menus we will not open; drinks; warm bread;
a crock of pickles, dill and sweet.
Our entrees, of course, will be puffers
and fish and chips; deep-fried, crisp
chunks of palate pleasure; waffle fries,
oil burnished and golden, and small pots
of cole slaw tanged and creamy on our tongues
washed down with tap drawn beers.

So let us away to our nook out east
and we’ll plump our rawboned selves
with beatitude and agree not to heed
the diluted light of a sinking sun.
We’ll glow in the moonlight instead.


COPYRIGHT JUNE 2006 BY COOKALA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED