August 2021
Bio Note: I'm a retired English Professor spending my time writing, taking the occasional photograph, trying to follow the Dharma. My poetry collections Time is Not a River and Morning Calm are both available on Amazon. My manuscript A Matter of Timing won the 2020 Poetry Society of Texas’ Manuscript Contest.
Pretending to Understand
I found a house by the seashore where the light filled the windows with the smell of the ocean and in the kitchen the woman I loved stood cleaning fish cutting off the heads in one smooth blow while I sliced onions my tears salting the bread, crying won’t help, she said placing the fish in hot oil and turning them once, the skin falls off, she said, if the temperature is just right. I squeezed a lemon the flesh of the fish flaking off, tasting of sunlight. Tomorrow the sun will rise again, and it will be her turn to cry while I cook breakfast at just the right temperature pretending to understand.
Originally appeared in the Penn Review and my book Time is Not a River
©2021 Michael Minassian
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