Karly White
No One Goes to Bed Hungry
The marine layer is drawing a dark,
Cold blanket over the sky,
But the light is on in the kitchen,
Where I stand.
I perform the ancient ritual:
Melting the butter,
Sautéing the onions
Dicing the carrots,
Soaking the lentils,
Stripping the leaf
From the stalk.
The whole house is warmed,
With the aroma of
Spices: cinnamon, cayenne, cloves,
And just a few drops of thick cream,
To mellow the flavors.
And my fingers reek of garlic,
A scent I wear like perfume.
As a young woman, I dreamed
Of changing the world,
Which hasn’t aged well with time.
But no one goes to bed hungry in this house,
And that has to count for something.
Karly Noelle Abreu White is a latina writer from Southern California. Her work has been featured or is upcoming in a variety of publications such as Alternative Milk Magazine, Atlas and Alice Literary Magazine, Fathom Magazine, the Unmooring Journal, and more. She also works as an intake editor for the Unmooring Journal. She has a degree in English literature from Biola University, and lives with her husband, two sons, and a fussy cat.