A Blueprint of Surface Tension

You break the oil skin on the balsamic

with a hunk of bread ripped from the loaf:

a baked brown rosemary leaf falls to the floor.

You squeeze the bosc pear, slice the ripe orange

& pull new potatoes from the plastic bag

hung taut & shuddering from your hand. Red skin

flakes into the parsley on the countertop where I chop garlic

for the crimini and chanterelle. The heat of the open oven door

sugars the room with caramelized garlic & lemon

as leaves crack outside on the wooden deck.