The Fats of Life

The Fats of Life
By: Teak Kilmer 
Circa 2004

I love fats: marinated, mesquite chip, char-broiled
juicy, thick, porterhouse steaks, ketchup soaked, dripping burgers
and oozing fries, Coho salmon floating in white sauce
 
Fats Waller ─ now that was one jive cat
stompin’ music, rhythms spiraling heavenward
melodies, harmonies and euphonies, stirred and stirring the innocent
 
caramel and whipping cream soaked
chocolate amaretto cheese cake
ice creams marbled with dancing flavors
 
aroma and color therapies of Crayolas
jumping out’ their box in groups of sixty-four, greasing my coloring book
lipstick ─ the one crayon remaining to my allowance
soothing me with memory, intimacy and promise
 
organic extra virgin olive oil drenching
onioned and herbed, whole grain French sourdough
OH, AND ... BUTTER ... pooled in toe-curling-flavored
red kuri (oh, my God!) squash
 
fatty tissue gathered lovingly in nice places on my sweetie
 
Fats Domino who “Ain’t That a Shame’d” and “Blue Berry Hill’d” me
into an adolescence that needed hope and an upbeat
 
My rock and roll bachelorhood was no more because of this hep-cat
I was dancin’ and groovin’, and I was gainin’ some hope …
 
Hope and joy that were so slim … at my house.

Comments

  1. Remlik MartinNovember 3, 2022 at 3:08 PM

    Oh yes! Fats a wallow that bath away the those slim... moments, days, weeks, months, years! TGFFs!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spiritual Etymology

  Spiritual Etymology by Teak Kilmer             Pythagoras discovered God through the amazing orderliness of the Universe proven in mathematics. An early proof for me is what lies hidden in language . One day I discovered (without cover, to reveal) the true essence of the word Universe (see description below) and thus began my quest to explore word origins and my elation at their once intended wonder. Note how the ancients viewed the world, how spiritually they experienced it, how much more forgiving and beautiful their experience and how we have reduced the concepts of our religious and spiritual terms, made blessings into mundane and even sometimes punitive, fear, guilt-ridden and controlling concepts. One of these concepts is the concept of dogma. One day, I looked at the word dogma , and it seemed to be struggling to get my attention. I had never had this happen before. I looked at the word carefully and diligently, and I realized that dogma spelled backwards is “Am God” ; theref
Read more

To JoAnne on Our 20th Anniversary

  To Jo Anne on July 22, 2009 Our 20 th Anniversary By Teak Kilmer     When I am with you, I am When I am not with you I think of you and I am   I see you in the garden my heart lifts. I am happy for you you tend and weed me too   I rub you when you hurt make dinners; remove the trash even when I am scarcely present   because these and more are due you no matter the wage A thought of you propels me   I am with you and I am
Read more

Peanut Butter and Bacon

  Peanut Butter and Bacon July 30 th , 2009 By Teak Kilmer   Hadn’t seen Michael since my wedding eight years ago and longer before that We sat in his disordered writer’s hovel and talked His heart and his soul were, however, in as fine a fettle as ever and I knew that that, and memories, were why I was there   We had painful, despairing childhoods, tragedies and rebellious acts strewn about like garbage in the streets But we two half Irish boys became joined at the lip and by the heart, and in our despite-it-alls   We shared blues and jazz and honky-tonk  that in the 40s and 50s were both historic and new  From “Ja Da” and Joe “Fingers” Carr,  Bix Biederbeck  and Josh White, Richie Havens, Joan Baez   Louis Armstrong in his underwear as we crashed his dressing room,  the Village Gate and “Take Five”, Cafe Wha, Eddie Condon's Jazz club, dancing with Nina Simone after her concert at Cornell University,  gingerly sneaking into Mike’s older brother Rick&#
Read more