The Recipe
after Yehuda Amichai
A woman will prepare an ideal man
out of all she desires: the hair
she took from a man who held the door for her
at a deli' the forehead from a bartender
who doesn't have to ask her favorite drink, the hands
from a construction worker who smiles like a child
when every morning she walks by is cake and candles,
the cheeks from an uncle who told her stories as a girl,
the mouth from a man she sees on her train rides home,
the thighs from a track and field star on TV who's won gold medals
for the U.S. and who she's convinced she loves, the sleepy
inviting gaze from this one, the eyes from that one,
the stone-shaped abs from her Tae Kwon Do instructor.
All of this she lays out, as if cooking a lavish feast
of several servings she plans to enjoy
over and over. From all this
she will put together what she loves,
unable to place the missing ingredient
until what's prepared
opens its mouth to speak.
By Alan King
Alan King
Alan King poems have appeared in Alehouse, Audience, Boxcar Poetry Review, Indiana Review, MiPoesias and RATTLE, among others. A Cave Canem fellow and VONA Alum, he's been nominated for both a Best of the Net selection and Pushcart Prize. His first collection of poems, Drift, will be published in 2012 by Willow Books. When he's not reporting or sending poems to journals, you can find King chasing the muse through Washington, D.C. - people watching with his boys and laughing at the crazy things strangers say to get close to one another.
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