HOW TO EAT ALONE

Since I'm still feeling a bit blocked, I thought I'd recycle an old JE about someone else's poem from Naseeb. Please keep in mind that this JE had been the last in a flurry of JEs about some of my favorite poems. The anthology to which I refer is "The Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets." Enjoy:

Okay folks. I promise this is the last of my English Lit. nerdiness for the night. I was just flipping through the anthology I mentioned in my previous je, when I happened upon this lovely poem by Daniel Halpern; I fell in love with it when I read it for the first time in the opening of Audrey Niffenegger's THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE. It's simply perfect (please replace the wine with soda, if you're Muslim and the lamb can be substituted with seitan if you're a vegetarian like I am; this poem will still work like magic):

"How to Eat Alone"

While it's still light out
set the table for one:
a red linen tablecloth,
one white plate, a bowl
for the salad
and the proper silverware.
Take out a three-pound leg of lamb,
rub it with salt, pepper and cumin,
then push in two cloves
of garlic splinters.
Place it in a 325-degree oven
and set the timer for an hour.
Put freshly cut vegetables
into a pot with some herbs
and the crudest olive oil
you can fine.
Heat on a low flame.
Clean the salad.
Be sure the dressing is made
with fresh dill, mustard
and the juice of hard lemons.

Open a bottle of good late harvest zinfandel
and let it breathe on the table.
Pour yourself a glass
of cold California chardonnay
and go to your study and read.
As the story unfolds
you will smell the lamb
and the vegetables.
This is the best part of the evening:
the food cooking, the armchair,
the book and bright flavor
of the chilled wine.
When the timer goes off
toss the salad
and prepare the vegetables
and the lamb. Bring them out
to the table. Light the candles
and pour the red wine
into your glass.
Before you begin to eat,
raise your glass in honor
of yourself.
The company is the best you'll ever have.