'first chop an onion' -
our traditional prologue
while wondering what the vegetables
would like to be.
discarding ginger skins
and chopping fine
with dangerous dimple-handled steel -
spanish onions
'firm, juicy, versatile'
the label promises
as they soften and release their scent
in green italian oil
italian almonds
and my new discoveries -
sharp henna-red israeli sumac,
sour iranian lime,
za'atar from palestinian hillsides
and the more prosaic -
water and rich brown marmite
from london
next, scrubbing off claggy yorkshire mud
from yellow potatoes, then diced,
orange carrots, sliced,
sand-coloured parsnips, in slender match sticks -
all added, bubbling
with fine leaf-green strips of cabbage
to be added last
nothing of our meal has leapt and bounded
save tiny sesame as it toasted
but all looked upward to the sun
or tuberous, fattened in secret
unseen, enclosed in dark rich earth
#smallstone 4
Comments