comfort

Weekend mornings
hot bowls of rice porridge
stinky fish with drops of garlicky vinegar
thin thin omelets made with soy sauce, MSG, a bit of sugar

cooking shows on the television:
Julia Child
Martin Yan
Lydia Bastianich
Ming Tsai
Chris Kimball.

It didn’t matter
whose hands did the
chopping
stirring
kneading

My father and I would
watch them all,
mostly in silence.

Puberty
adolescence
indolence
settled in,
teenage hibernation replacing
those morning sessions,
and the silence
stretched for miles.

Miles away now,
I spend nights
hiding in my apartment,

Jamie Oliver
Alton Brown
Michael Smith
Jacques Pepin

telling me lullabies.

It’s silent,
different and the same
as always.