Guacamole

The surest thing

I've ever done—

ripe avocado

     skin rough and pit silky, fitting the palm

bright lemon

     stinging just a little in a cut finger

sea salt

a clove of garlic

onion and tomato

crushed red chile, seeds and pods

time

     to breathe

time

     to become

and then the glazed blue bowl

     textured like avocado skin

yielding its alchemy.

No measuring,

just practice, taste,

this ritual I've followed

almost all my life

that always brings

a kind of clarity

I'd forget otherwise

and gives me back myself

my Santa Fe childhood

those gatherings of friends in later years

     on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay

that hillside in Mallorca, where after

deliberating words all day

with other writers

we'd have gin and tonic

little grilled peppers

and guacamole

while the sun went down below us

in that distant sea

strange and always familiar

—Christie