A RECIPE FOR LIGHT

In Manchester House Kitchen

Eight cooks charge into the recipe, simmering 
sugar-water to make the matter
of ninety parfaits, crown of a formal dinner.
Volunteers in an ashram kitchen, we measure 
and stir, following what’s given until sweet
aromas waft from open ovens and softening
sauces relent in their pots like petted cats. 
We roast along with the caramel, sifting together.

The sky beyond the open door is as pale 
as the pineapple soup stirred with now-aching shoulders.
Deep in kettles our granularity melts 
along with our edges. An invisible substance 
showers through the air despite jostles 
and collisions. Harmony dizzies and rolls up
in the packed air. More than dinner’s finale,
better than any tip-drop lick, this new pliancy
releases us from old habits, to pour like honey 
into the afternoon and a newfound light. 

Rachel Dacus is the author of six magical realism novels. Her poetry collections are Arabesque, Gods of Water and Air, Femme au Chapeau, and Earth Lessons, and her writing has appeared widely in magazines, including Boulevard, Gargoyle, Prairie Schooner, and Terrain. She has poetry in the anthologies Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California and Radiant DisUnities: Real Ghazals in English.  She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Connect with her at www.racheldacus.net.