The Taste of Love: NaPoWriMo 2018, Day 19

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The Taste of Love

What we feasted on
in those first stages
of internet romance—
when nine hours was too short a conversation—
was words.

We passed on to the next stage of computer dating:
our first dinner date.
He watched on his desktop computer as I prepared a salad.
This was a long and lengthy process
I recorded as closely  as was possible
using the camera from my laptop.

A prisoner of his large unmovable console computer,
I watched his empty desk chair
as he repaired to the kitchen to prepare his meal,
hearing sound effects but little else.

When he returned to the living room and his computer,
he laid his meal in front of his computer.
I had yet to see it as I, in turn, placed my salad in front of me
and took my first bite,
watching closely my technique according to my Skype image.
I chewed politely and then smiled,
revealing the lack of lettuce shards on my front teeth.
I looked up. He was watching me as lovingly as usual.
Now, it was his turn.

What are you eating? I asked.
Ham, he said.
He lifted a huge hunk of ham on his fork, taking a dainty bite
and chewing happily.
What else? I asked?
Just ham, he answered.
And so he demolished the entire pound or two of thick ham steak,
now and then washing it down with a healthy swig of rum and Coke.

Rum and Coke.
It had been one of our bonding experiences
to find that the drink of choice of each was not only rum and Coke,
but Bacardi Rum with Caffeine-Free Diet Coke.
How could this not be a romance made in heaven?

Culinary compatibility,
from 2,000 miles away
seemed to be less of a problem than it would be three months later,
when we first made physical contact.

Well, there was a resolution.
He started munching on carrots
and I had no objection to ham.
We both found a like mania for potato chips,
but true romance bloomed
when I found the full bar of Hershey’s Chocolate
atop his refrigerator.
Who says we need to concentrate on our differences?
Hershey’s Chocolate?
Yes. Our first true taste of love.

 

NaPoWriMo Prompt for the day: write a paragraph that briefly recounts a story, describes the scene outside your window, or even gives directions from your house to the grocery store. Now try erasing words from this paragraph to create a poem or, alternatively, use the words of your paragraph to build a new poem.

12 thoughts on “The Taste of Love: NaPoWriMo 2018, Day 19”

  2. Manja Mexi Movie

    A lovely account for sure, but what did you erase? Or didn’t you? It reminded me of the time when I was still living in Slovenia and he was already here in our future home and one evening he was cooking zucchini in tomato sauce and he showed it to me on Skype and it was sooooo red. I used to hate red foods and now I eat all of them and not only if I’m starving.

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    1. lifelessons Post author

      Ha..No time to show the process. Found out last night that the people I thought I’d invited for Friday are coming today in two hours. Lucky I’d cooked the chili ahead of time.. Flying trip into town today solved the rest.. J

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      1. Manja Mexi Movie

        Ohh, of course, you don’t owe the blogging world a thing. 🙂 I was just wondering how long the original must have been if this is what remained after blackening a part of it. Mmmm, chili is red, right? 😉 Still not too happy with the spicy part though…

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  5. Pingback: NaPoWriMo / GloPoWriMo 2018 – Day 19 – “Quiet Me Of What I Know” by David Ellis | toofulltowrite (I've started so I'll finish)

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