Anonymous 1

have you noticed

the way an olive drapes off its pit

like skin on tongue?

there’s a line i can’t read in my grandmother’s recipe

and so i peel olive by olive

and stare at her worn page

Anonymous 2

A woman crosses the footbridge,

beating back the sunshine with her umbrella

water lilies bobbing white below her

She grips a halfempty jar in her other hand

brown fluid sloshing in time with her steps

and I strain to read the label as I pass

“Herring in wine sauce”