Big Wonderful Circus

Ellen Wade Beals

To eat frosting
off the beater*

Be bowlside when icing is ready.

Hold the beater like a lollipop.

Start with the first silver arc.

Use tongue
to lick sweetness
from exterior.

When frosting from first arc is gone,
twirl beater to next one.

Continue until frosting is licked
from outsides of all four arcs.

Use a similar procedure
on interior sides.

It may be hard to reach the inside top,
that flat disc where the arcs meet.
Try to poke your tongue
in between.

Oh well. You cannot get it all.

Rinse.
Repeat with other beater.

Note: These directions may apply to mashed potatoes.

*General Electric Portable Mixer: Models M22 & M24

Jen Karetnick

Love Is Not a Feast

Love is not a feast
but an appetite for one:
The waft of roast meat under the nose
when starvation has been the rule of thumb.

Think vinegar, awakening what was dumb
with disuse – the palate of soft words and roses.
Love is not a feast but an appetite for one.

Oyster hors d’ouevre, fleshy pearl on the tongue.
Ice curling into seductive poses.
When starvation has been the rule of thumb,

it’s said little leads to satiation:
The eyes close but the mouth opens.
I say love is not a feast but an appetite for one,

turning ascetics into gluttons
who strip at the mere sight of mangos;
when starvation has been the rule of thumb,

five-course meals are mere samples of joys to come.
So sample freely – gorge – and don’t look for losses.
When starvation has been the rule of thumb,
love is not a feast but an appetite for one.

Cathy Bryant

To Take to a Party: Tofu/Whiskey Chocolate Mousse

Blend in a blender:
Pack of silken tofu (roughly 350g)
5 rounded dessertspoons sugar
3 rounded dessertspoons cocoa powder
big sloosh of whiskey
Then chill.

Label it ‘whiskey chocolate mousse
– not suitable for children or drivers
and people will fight over it
– it will all go. It will help to make
the party a success.

If you label it ‘tofu chocolate mousse’,
however, then no one will touch it;
you get to eat it all yourself.

It’s a dilemma.