Hilda believed she couldn’t marry Rick, even though she loved him. She believed this because she stood married to Herbert, her first love. Her mother, Audrey Ann, told her, the morning of the twenty-pew church wedding at Lovely Lane Methodist. “Hildie, marriage makes us whole, in the eyes of our Lord, in the eyes of friends and family—love, honor, and obey. Herbert has moved up to second teller at the bank. He’s clean cut and never drinks on Sundays. When …
Tag: wine
“The Train to Bordeaux” & Other Poems By Mike Lewis-Beck
The Train to Bordeaux left Paris under delays from a Metro slowdown, a Yellow Vest street action, and a heat wave of 42 degrees Celsius that perhaps caused the Arras diversion due to an announced ‘obstacle’ on the tracks, a could-be jump. German newlyweds across from us, red and happy, brimmed with cold beer downed in the station patio sun. As the train passed Poitiers, gateway to the South, I dreamt of a chilled Pineau des Charentes with a …
Read More "“The Train to Bordeaux” & Other Poems By Mike Lewis-Beck"
“Psychedelic Hazelnut Cupcakes” & Other Poems by Clarice Hare
Psychedelic Hazelnut Cupcakes An unassuming cupcake! Other cupcakes would call it a scrumptious masterpiece. But this one is just a cupcake! The aroma coming from the cupcake is like the high- ground tobacco grasses that blend with our harmonious autumn lands. It is sweet and sour. Almondy. Cranberry-tinged. Sweet, but savory, and just a little bit juicy. Honey, almond, and cinnamon. Vanilla. Just the right amount of spices in the flavor. Honey, and chocolate. Apples, but I didn’t add any …
Read More "“Psychedelic Hazelnut Cupcakes” & Other Poems by Clarice Hare"
“Must” & Other Poems by Robert Beveridge
Must Juice is wrungfrom the grapeswith a wooden pressor, nicer, feet. This is donea few times, how manydepends on the grapes and what is left is must.Exhausted, pulpy,but, with essence given,imperative. The juice will,of course, make wine,ferment inside wetbarrels, gain potency. But the must, the structure,can lie on the tonguewithout change, slipdown into the throat,taste of sweetness,exhaustion. Oneiromancer You ask yourself for the hundredthtime how much fish sauce is toomuch, add it, throw in another twotablespoons for good …
“Booze” * A Prose-Poem by Yash Seyedbagheri
Booze beckons beneath the sun’s cheerful vast skies. It is a Tuesday, boozeday, perfect day for booze, the skies the brightest shade of light blue one can imagine. The week is nascent, full of hope, lacking the chaos and screaming faces of Friday, cynicism depleted. But one drinks only in the evening, when obligations take flight, when one is alone with the night, a vastness before one. One can drink when the shadows begin their dance and streetlamps flick on, …
Cake Vodka * Fiction * M. Leona Godin
There was this blind kid, a really young large kid, but very sweet, very sensitive kind of soul. He’d walk in and come straight to the counter. He moved fast. The bells on the door would just finish jingling and he’d be in front of us saying politely, “Hey how’s it going Could you grab me a bottle of that Cake Vodka?” In the beginning, he always came in wearing a shirt and tie. He said he worked at some …
“Honeysuckle: The South’s Favorite Weed” an essay by Gretchen Gales
As a child, my grandfather showed me how to pick and drink the nectar from the honeysuckle that grew on the outskirts of the woods. After plucking it from the bushes, he showed me how to pinch the green ends and draw the nectar out. I always loved finding the blossoms with the most nectar and pouted in disappointment when I would find duds, tossing them to the ground. As an adult, I still reflect on honeysuckle’s influence on southern …
Read More "“Honeysuckle: The South’s Favorite Weed” an essay by Gretchen Gales"
A Conversation with Dr. Hoby Wedler, Blind Chemist, About Wine Tasting, Sensory Literacy, and the Glorious Smell of Wet Pavement
A nice metaphor brought to us from the world of wine is that happy grapes don’t make for good wines. Grapes need to work hard under stressful conditions in order to produce their deliciousness. Hoby Wedler, an organic chemist turned entrepreneur selected as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Food & Drink, who also happens to be blind since birth, offers as an example the happy Cabernet grapes grown in the Central Valley of California. They are watered, get …
Alchemy, Aromatherapy, and Distillation: An Interview with Cathy Skipper
Cathy Skipper is English by birth and spent much of her adult life in rural France, where she farmed, trained and worked as a herbalist and aromatherapist, and taught practical herbalism, botany and aromatherapy. Together with her husband Florian Birkmayer, she founded Aromagnosis.com. They live in New Mexico and offer courses live and online centralized around the work of Carl Jung, alchemy, aromatherapy, aromatic molecules and the mind. Her new book The Alchemy of Menopause helps women transform “the time …
Read More "Alchemy, Aromatherapy, and Distillation: An Interview with Cathy Skipper"