The Abstract

"We miss the abstract when we comprehend.
We miss it most when we aspire, - and fail."

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, fifth book

"a touch of earth"

" . . . but, friend, to me
He is all fault who hath no fault at all:

For who loves me must have a touch of earth"

- Tennyson, Idylls of the King, "Lancelot and Elaine"

Fried Ice-cream

I like fried ice-cream.

The crisp appearance,
dressed in a solid coat
of raw eggs and cornflakes,

sealed in boiling oil:
the ultimate concealment.

Under this maquillage,
is but the delicate and mellow
solid-fluid, the vanilla sweetness
that strips the stoic disguise.

I am fried ice-cream.