Alimentary, my dear Reader

Miss Eagle has been thinking about the food and literature thread. Miss E loves a good word and a good story as much as good food and good wine. From Michael Hettich comes this poem:

The Chef

I can't help gleaming

as I marvel at the oysters

I gathered this morning

from the airport, for you—

because they are the muscle

of the ocean, the flavor

of tide, the life

inside my own body

and yours. Taste

with your whole mouth,

taste beyond yourself,

swallow the muck

of this brief eternity

and fill your body

with luck, and pleasure!

There is no other world.

—for David Bracha

This was discovered, dear Reader, by your correspondent in a journal of food and literature called Alimentum. The title is a Latin word meaning nourishment. So, for those in southern Australia, as the nights get chilly and the hoped for rains come and staying home with the ducted heating seems desirable feed your soul with the comfort food of fine food-related writing.