#52essays: #Foodie

I think of you often throughout the day

But it’s when I sit at my dining table that I think of you the most

To say that I love food and feeding people is to speak a half-truth

You eat, and you relish in whatever I place in front of you

I don’t pray often, but I pray these two things consistently:

One, that I not be stricken by an illness that denies me the relishing of good food

Two, that I not find myself married to someone who only eats for fuel

I dare say the gods are honoring my request at present

Minus the pesky fact of vegetarianism, that is

Minor detail, all things considered

 

I think of you this afternoon as I eat my Thai left-overs

I reach for the card you gave me a week ago

I read it for the umpteenth time

“Good Morning Beautiful!” it reads

I never cease to smile

“My life is fuller with you in it!”

I’m often the one who sends cards

Hallmark, Mahogany if I can find them, Between You & Me

I spent quite a fortune on cards when I was young and first in love

I stopped doing this a couple years ago

You reminded me how I loved giving them

When I found one on my bed, addressed,

To my girlfriend

It reminded me that perhaps you’d appreciate it if I started that habit again

 

I greedily wolf down my Drunken Noodle

Catty corner from what is your claimed spot

I think of the first time we ate together

I smile

I watched you rolling a makeshift burrito with injera

Then there was the time when you maneuvered kenkey with a fork

Hazards of dating outside my ethnic group

Comes with the territory

But I like you enough to make it worth my time

The mini language lessons

My pretend attempts at acting shocked and flabbergasted that

anyone would eat injera with a fork or make a burrito from it

I accept the hazards of this experiment in loving another

Who looks like me

Yet is nowhere near who I am

I think of you most when I eat because I rejoice that you eat