Poetry

stewpot of memories

(for gene baňez)

like pipe
smoke embedded
in my father’s jacket
your tuitive musing of med
school days

wells in
me the scents and
flavors of the past we
all shared/ the anamnesis of
affairs

long gone/
the piquant and
the bitter we choose to
ignore/ savoring instead the
haut-gout

of past
dalliances
of faded friendships of
minionings that persist through time
that have

become
sweeter and sharp
the umami in the
stewpot of memories/ and
now in

this fagged
transactional
age of truthiness and
quid pro quo you may ask/ the price
that we

owe her
the exchange that
is really fair between
her and us/ the tuition-fee that
we paid

against
all that we got
are getting and will get
back from her plus memories so
priceless//

renato
thursday 31 december 2020