Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire

Rituals with Food Before the Feast

R I T U A L S W I T H F O O D B E F O R E T H E F E A S T When darkness enchants us in its class of forms & the about-to-happen renders calm, the berries split & snap in their juices; it’s then the dear ginger cooks on the crown of heat. It’s then the women make a cross in each chestnut; then the sweet pulp rests in the shells, after a flight from introverted trees— Voices curl near the blue flame; mother & daughter pick moonseeds from pomegranates, they are taxonomists & label the peppery fruit . . . A moment of fear as the meat is carried with sage, mushrooms & bread— & the children laugh though they had been sad; the baby sleeps in the grown-up bed near a painting of Mary showing Jesus to a patron in des Mittelalters: radical energy, frail winter, styles of realism, Come in— 4 0 ...