Consuelos de Cocina
Hands of the dead here in my living hands
as I split stony squash with a crack of the blade,
scoop seeds, oil flesh for the fire—hands
of women and men in my hands, generations
repeating these gestures, the old pleasure
of sliding squash into fiery oven, testing
impatiently for tenderness—the first bite
that singes the tongue, the voluptuous
swallow whetting lust for another, for heat,
the gravity of a full warm belly, irradiating
bones of the face and chest as this fruity vegetable
deity becomes human flesh—
offspring of sun and hairy vine strung with leaves,
gives winter calor y sabor, consoles our doubt
our solitude, consuelos de muertos, de silencios
y dolores here in my kitchen this morning, gracias
for this dark Mexican mound, this creamy
piedra with its gold miracle turning
inside out, singing the blood of the living
and the dead, changing
hunger to praise.
–
Maia
Fall 2018
Notes: Cucurbita moschata, Butternut squash, is a native of Mexico
On the Spanish: articles in Spanish omitted deliberately for rhythmic simplicity
-Consuelos: consolations -Cocina: can mean kitchen, cuisine, cookery, cooking, stove/oven, and I mean all of them here -calor y sabor: heat and savor -consuelos de muertos: consolations of or from the dead -de silencios y dolores: of silences and the pains of yearning, grieving, missing -piedra: rock or stone
