Making Risotto for Dinner When His Ex-Wife Calls
by Kendra Tanacea
While I mince an onion, he talks with her,planning their son’s bar mitzvah, soundingso familiar, so nuts and bolts. Turning up the gas flame,I sauté the onion translucent. Butter sizzles, foams,as they go over the invitation list, names I’ve never heard.
Adding a cup of Arborio, I think of white ricethrown high in the air by the fistful. I pourtwo glasses of chardonnay, one for the risotto,one for myself, sip, then gulp. Blend.
The band, flowers, menu?Heady, I stare at the recipe to orient myself, to understandwhat I am doing: Add broth, cup by cup, until absorbed.Add Parmesan. Serve immediately.
The word immediately catches my eye,but their conversation continues, then his songets on the line and hangs up on him,as I stir and stir, holding the wooden spoon.
“Making Risotto for Dinner When His Ex-Wife Calls” by Kendra Tanacea from A Filament Burns in Blue Degrees. © Lost Horse Press, 2017. Reprinted with permission.
In an Old Apple Orchard
The wind’s an old man
to this orchard; these trees
have been feeling
the soft tug of his gloves
for a hundred years.
Now it’s April again,
and again that old fool
thinks he’s young.
He’s combed the dead leaves
out of his beard; he’s put on
perfume. He’s gone off
late in the day
toward the town, and come back
slow in the morning,
reeling with bees.
As late as noon, if you look
in the long grass,
you can see him
still rolling about in his sleep.
Ted Kooser
in Sure Signs
SATURDAY, APRIL 1ST, 2023
“We must never forget the moment and the way in which God enters into our lives, treasuring in our hearts and minds that encounter with Grace that enkindles faith in our hearts and sparks zeal for the Gospel within us. We need to be cleansed of all the dust that has sullied our hearts. How? Prayer, fasting, works of mercy: this is the journey of Lent.”
Pope Francis
The Vibrant Channeled Creator 