How to Use a Lemon
Squeeze some into tea.
Frizzle off the zest.
Add it to piccata
and pith away the rest.
Carbonation Blues
Newly opened
seltzer’s pleasant.
On the lips it’s
effervescent.
But whatever
seltzer isn’t
finished by tomorrow
fizzn’t.
A Tiny Toast
A tiny toast to you from me
as small as an apostrophe
as brief as snowflakes on a glove:
I wish you health, I wish you love.
A cracker crumb, a bit of crust
so brief, it’s hardly there at all
like birdseed scattered in the wind
or icicles that crack and fall
a shadow on a windowpane
a leaf that’s skidding on the frost
my melba round, my miniloaf,
my crouton in the world of toast.
Just love. And in the space that’s left
I wish you health and happiness.
A bagel chip, a bite or two,
a tiny toast from me to you.
Toby Speed is write-tired and lives in the Upper Valley of New Hampshire. She is the author of seven books for children. Her poems have appeared or will soon appear in Light, Lighten Up Online, The Rotary Dial, Silver Birch Press, Four and Twenty, and The 5-2: Crime Poetry Weekly.