Stars in a Pudding – Ayşe Tekşen

Little stars

we add to our puddings.

Little motifs

metallic on our tongues.

We ask ourselves,

do we ever need them?

But without waiting

for the answer,

we get to the serious business of

eating the whole galaxy up.

The moon and the sun

are not invaded yet

in this sugary sweet soup.

We need them

in our next trip

around the earth

as sightseeing materials

to boggle

the charisma

of the journey.

Halfway through the bowl,

we ask ourselves,

should we have made

chocolate bars, instead,

in which little earthquakes

of queasy pistachio or hazelnut trees

serve as mouth filling regiments

of savor and delight?

But we say no to that.

We are not little children after all—

at least we are not supposed

to be little ones,

though we are

and will always be children.

We will not be fooled

by some bars of chocolate

to be carried

in our pockets.

We will dip

into our bowls,

spoon,

take mouthfuls,

and find ecstasy

in the jelly like structure

of the edible thing.

A bar of chocolate

or even a huge box of them

cannot ever be compared

to this delicious boat,

to be palmed,

to be drunk from,

to be licked,

and most importantly

to be filled again

whenever emptied.

No bee can do this or no box.

Only for this reason

we are fond of puddings

whether virgin or universe spiced.

Our puddings last

till daytime

and our ecstasies, too.

 

 

 

Ayşe Tekşen lives in Ankara, Turkey where she works as a research assistant
at the Department of Foreign Language Education, Middle East Technical
University. Her work has been included in Gravel, After the Pause, The
Write Launch, Uut Poetry, The Fiction Pool, What Rough Beast, Scarlet Leaf
Review, Seshat, Neologism Poetry Journal, Anapest, Red Weather, Ohio
Edit, SWWIM Every Day, The Paragon Journal, Arcturus, Constellations,
the Same, The Mystic Blue Review, Jaffat El Aqlam, Brickplight, Willow,
Fearsome Critters, Susan, The Broke Bohemian, The Remembered Arts
Journal, Terror House Magazine, and Dash. Her work has also appeared or
is forthcoming in Straylight, Lavender Review, Shoe Music Press, and Havik:
Las Positas College Anthology.

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