the next food network star

There is a phrase from a poem by Mark Strand that I love:

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth
There is no happiness like mine
I have been eating poetry

I love this phrase so much because I love poetry so much. And I love the image of me, devouring poetry, licking ink from my lips. Reading poetry is so satisfying. Like eating my favorite foods.

And I love when I come across a poem that is so perfect, that it seems as though the poet reached into my mind and just pulled their words right out.

The poem, Pantry, that I just posted is one of those poems. I got goosebumps when I found it. Seriously. Because my Lion loves to play in our pantry. He is forever going in there. Jonathan and I say he is going to be a little chef, just like his daddy. And I really believe it.


The Lion comes from a long line of great cooks. (Not counting myself, people.) Jonathan and my mom are both obsessed with food. They love to cook, and when they are not cooking, they both love watching other people cooking on tv, reading cookbooks, talking about food and imagining ways they would alter recipes. They cannot eat and merely enjoy the food. They have to sit there and dissect the dish while they are tasting it, figuring out what ingredients are in there and how they could improve upon it. And I am not joking.

So I see my Lion, rummaging in the pantry and I bitch about how I need to get a lock for the door, but I really don't want to discourage him. I think he has inherited this love of food. And I think it is awesome.

I'll be sitting on the couch and my son will waddle over to me and hand me a bottle of salad dressing. Olivia was over last week and while we were talking, Lion brought me a jar of sliced mushrooms and then a can of chipotle peppers. Olivia laughed, but I told her, "He does this all the time."

In fact, he just handed me a package of muffin mix.