LANA BELLA
MY ANGUISHED GOULASH
The speed of my earthy hunger,
with all its leaf to bud to stem,
asked for my anguished goulash
of garlic broth and the dark-
ripening of molasses' granular
prismatic. I was here as the dust-
grey of night's end traveled with
my fingertips through vats of
goosefat and jars of custard on
the shelf, down to the steep place
where a trail of spice whetted its
blade above the swill of my vodka.
Liquefying myself to the cabbage
and meats screaming in the crock,
I thought of the mingling salt of
Egg Benedict and strips of bacon
curling to the iconic sadness lying
just a little too close to my heart.
A Pushcart nominee, Lana Bella is an author of two chapbooks, Under My Dark (Crisis Chronicles Press, 2016) and Adagio (Finishing Line Press, forthcoming), has had poetry and fiction featured with over 300 journals, 2River, California Quarterly, Chiron Review, Columbia Journal, Poetry Salzburg Review, San Pedro River Review, The Hamilton Stone Review, The Homestead Review, The Ilanot Review, The Writing Disorder, Third Wednesday, Tipton Poetry Journal, Yes Poetry, and elsewhere, among others. She resides in the US and the coastal town of Nha Trang, Vietnam, where she is a mom of two far-too-clever-frolicsome imps.
https://www.facebook.com/Lana-Bella-789916711141831/