Julia Rose Lewis is the author of three poetry collections: Phenomenology of the Feral (KFS), High Erratic Ecology (KFS), and The Hen Wife (Contraband). She and James Miller co-authored Strays (HVTN). She has published six pamphlets, the most recent of which is NAG (Gang Press).
Nathan Hyland Walker graduated from The Culinary Institute of America in 2012. He has worked in kitchens including The Fog Island Cafe, The Fog Island Grille, Vescio’s and Pizza Boys and The Tap Room. He is currently a Chef/Dietary Specialist in a memory care facility in New York.
Dedication
There was a woman in the doctor’s office, like a grandmother in her kitchen, who could tell you about every chemotherapy drug as though it were a meal she had prepared herself for her family, she would tell you the recipe and tricks known only to those who had used the recipe. She would tell you how she felt after the meal, she would tell you everything she knew if you would listen. This book is dedicated to her wisdom. Like a witch she could conjure poison, like a witch, she could nourish you.
Diet Pepsi
Pepcid
In the same lemon as gasoline,
soon gastrin
and the vagus nerve trigger release
of pepsinogen,
it digests itself today
now born pepsin sinning against the diner.
We hate it.
The mother of chaos is
the grandmother of gas and the road
from vast chasm void,
this obsidian is a glass and charcoal act
in between veins of history
I mean like a grandmother in her kitchen,
we take it.
We take another little piece of her volcanic rock
for relief if heartburn fizzes and dazes still.
People will tell you it leads towards cancer,
and I will laugh,
actually cackle like the witch
because coal or charcoal it is important to note
that gas came from chaos
to denote a principle if occult singing.
We respire it.
Bruschetta
Perjeta
Bruschetta is bread and
red and bread
and red tomatoes
and yellow tomorrows
and orange tomatoes
and green tomorrows
and purple tomatoes looming
in the middle of the Thursday
and through this day which is old.
The bread should be day old
before toasting,
before rubbing with roast garlic,
do not roast the tomatoes
for they are summoning her
to balsamic, to salt, to pepper, tomorrow.
Now throw the tomato
dice into the bowl with seeds up,
with skins up, face up to
macerate to make soft or made soft or soaked,
to soften in olive from oil
from olive for extra virgin olive oil…
the future of oil is leaving here.
So seeds up, sixes up
to fill the bread,
let the tomatoes fall softly
only onto the bread yet,
bruschetta is simple is still experimental,
appetizer a part of a whole protocol, please see
the velvet protocol.
