They say salt
was once so precious
that soldiers were paid in it—a salary.
A common, bitter thing
I add salt’s tear-tang to the dough
and feel my wrist and bicep work
(the ingredients of my life
are not measurable things
though I feel them pulse just out of sight)
now I see the sight I always see
out the kitchen window
as I knead and knead and knead
That greedy wheedler the aspen
shakes its golden leaves. In earth,
its shoots snatch another foot.
And a young woman suddenly died,
quietly, from a quiet well-loved life.
No cause is known. Her eyes
that flicked like lizards closed.
Brother, Can You Spare The Time? To be fully present for the sensation of a moment where you can discover what lies behind the human masquerade, and have the chance to make everything in your life new again. You’ll uncover grief, sorrow and passion in the sensing of the body armor. The tragic spiritual mediocrity […]
Read more "Brother, Can You Spare The Time?"Back From The Dead I wait, patient as leaves. You like to speak of pleasant topics, & keep the thicket of the heart unmentioned. My breasts have changed, their fullest moment wasted. We will have to make our peace, me & the skeleton, me & the hourglass. I cracked the ice, a blow that brought […]
Read more "Back From The Dead"Seth Jani currently resides in Seattle, WA and is the founder of Seven CirclePress. His own work has been published widely in such places as The Chiron Review, The Hamilton Stone Review, Hawai`i Pacific Review, VAYAVYA, Gingerbread House, Gravel and Zetetic: A Record of Unusual Inquiry. Frequencies It will be the only comfort you will know. You come down through the gossamer […]
Read more "Frequencies"When I told my mom I’d decided to leave Paris and by extension the Louvre, the Canal St. Martin, the Marais, the amazing Chinese place with one-euro appetizers (carmelized lotus root! spicy green beans!) and move back to damp Normandy, she was not convinced. “Why would you want to leave Paris?” she asked, as though […]
Read more "Leaving Paris"It was the end of a very long day when I listened to my voice mail. “It’s important, call me back.” One of the more talkative people I know, my friend wasn’t usually cryptic. I called back immediately. She didn’t say hello, only, “So there is a lump….” My heart sank, because that’s a phrase […]
Read more "But I’m So Healthy, How Could I Be Sick?"In the first three weeks, I would wake up (though to say wake up you would think I had been sleeping, when, in fact, I probably had just put my head to the pillow) and my eyes felt like sandpaper. My body ached, and I just felt dirty, no matter how many showers I took, […]
Read more "Back in the Day(s)"Looking back you remember thinking, this is how your end could start. You’re in the shower, washing the remnants of a solid workout down the drain. As you reach for the soap you secretly hope that afterwards you’ll look in the bathroom mirror and glimpse that abdominal definition you’ve been striving for. You rub the bar […]
Read more "Talking myself through a cancer scare"Most Mondays on my blog, True STORIES., I introduce readers to everyday people and everyday occurrences. Following is one true story I wrote for you today: A young woman–she considers herself young but really, she’s in her mid-thirties, not young, not old–leaves her family and heads to an island to be alone for several days. Not […]
Read more "Meet: The Innkeeper"
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