COMPLETING THE CARNIVAL

For Demyan

My look strives into the meat ranks
where there is salo
pork, soft skin, salted with garlic
To this the brain draws boiled potatoes
in vinegars
And if not salo, hot, self-made beef
peppers with fatty sour cream, smoke
All under a glass dome
Borscht also stands up to consciousness
Not summer, light, lean, cold, but real
Green, in a broth with strong pork
with total sorrel and garlic
with sour cream, Onion
burning the mouth and warning the soul
of something else… Simple and Sour (but also not lean)
Wilted white cabbage
with the inner-look of meat, This way,
to all the spicy herbs
of the forest, our holiday of vitaminization
viburnum, scored apples, pan links,
fruit of the mushroom-vents,
the honey starts to pump
as we go into winter smoothly, completing the carnival
to become our warmest.

Zan de Parry wrote Cold Dogs (The Song Cave).