first published, as a delicious meal of poetry on EveryDay Poets:

The Five Course Reunion 

i)

The melon crescents were served

Back to back like a frown.

When ours were collected afterwards 

They had been turned over into a smile.

ii)

The soup darkens as we stir,

Reds and greens arise then sink.

The stop and go of us these years.

Boundaries split, natures mix. Catch

Them in our spoons, rediscover

The recipe for what we were.

iii)

Choose a wing with me.

If they are from the same bird

It will fly again .

  

iv)

Let's halve this Emmental, you said,

Though in our hands at first

The cheese knife curved away

Nervous at slicing so deep into

Fermented joys we'd sealed up tight.

But then we saw ourselves,

Heart valves, moon craters,

Half-formed question marks,

Caverns echoing our answer.

v)

After so long you`ve opened it again

To seek some biscuit bits,

Edges smoothed in the jostling jar.

Once fresh with flavour at first snap,

Now old and soft and taking on

The crumbs of ones they`re kept with.

Like you and me, a match can`t now exactly be

Rejoined at where it broke, the art is to agree

Two pieces can taste about the same.

Stuart Larner