Drowned beneath a tide of vodka and vermouth by cristinaledesma33

Drowned beneath a tide of vodka and vermouth

Olives by A. E. Stallings

Sometimes a craving comes for salt, not sweet,
For fruits that you can eat
Only if pickled in a vat of tears—
A rich and dark and indehiscent meat
Clinging tightly to the pit—on spears

Of toothpicks, maybe, drowned beneath a tide
Of vodka and vermouth,
Rocking at the bottom of a wide,
Shallow, long-stemmed glass, and gentrified;
Or rustic, on a plate cracked like a tooth—

A miscellany of the humble hues
Eponymously drab—
Brown greens and purple browns, the blacks and blues
That chart the slow chromatics of a bruise—
Washed down with swigs of barrel wine that stab

The palate with pine-sharpness. They recall
The harvest and its toil,
The nets spread under silver trees that foil
The blue glass of the heavens in the fall—
Daylight packed in treasuries of oil,

Paradigmatic summers that decline
Like singular archaic nouns, the troops
Of hours in retreat. These fruits are mine—
Small bitter drupes
Full of the golden past and cured in brine.

*I tore my rotator cuff on Easter and have had my arm in a sling but have got the ok from my doctor that I can do movements today. Will be catching up on my calendar.
Fun poem. Ouch about your arm. Glad to hear it is healing. Hope you get a full recovery.
April 22nd, 2022  
Sorry about your arm. Neat shot and poem.
April 22nd, 2022  
Yum!!
April 23rd, 2022  
@shutterbug49 Thank you! It definitely hurts like the dickens!
April 23rd, 2022  
@eudora Thanks!
April 23rd, 2022  
thank you! @jtdurham
April 23rd, 2022  
Like your high key treatment here. Did the rotator cuff thing myself at the start of the pandemic - it healed very quickly, hope you do similarly.
April 23rd, 2022  
Thanks! I hope so too. It’s very annoying and painful. @laroque
April 23rd, 2022  
I really enjoy your month; the minimalism of these compostions, so many really, really good white-on-whites, just so well conceived and done.
April 24th, 2022  
If only I had known! I would have been happy to help rescue these by drinking the 'tide'.
April 25th, 2022  
@granagringa Thank you so much for such a kind comment. I have been having fun with this challenge. I’ve never really done much high-key (at least, not on purpose) before this.
April 28th, 2022  
April 28th, 2022  
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