In Praise of the Brazil Nut

Dipping my hand into the party mix, I retrieve you, Brazil Nut.
Although you mingle well with others – pecans, filberts, almonds –
you want the limelight and will not be dominated in the nut bowl.

Meaty and long, your brown membrane peels as if sunburned in Amazon jungle
before your journey to a North American store.

You are smooth and cool to the touch.
I pop you in my mouth and roll you like a stone.

Tentative molars bite down and my saliva engulfs you.
I am fooled into believing you are a baked potato.
In flavor, you could be cousin to Ireland’s spud.

Thank you for traveling so far to feed me.

Seals

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Death and Life washed up on the shore, lying on the sands of Alki Beach.
Curious on-lookers gathered near to point at
the inert, dark mass
more rock than mammal,
its ebony flesh age-battered.
No more frolics in the waves.
No more suppers of fish and kelp.

Close by the seal pup
blinked its eyes,
dorsal tail waving and I thought of the story
of the Little Mer-Baby lost at sea,
swept home on a wave.
“Should we call Fish and Wildlife?” someone asked.

The pup winked and turned to the sun.
Napped.
With no worries of its fate.