The Butcher's Apron: New and Selected Poems Book

Introduction	9
I	A California Girl
The Butcher's Apron	17
Breakfast	20
The Helm's Bakery Man	23
Saturday Night	25
The Lessons of Smoked Fish, Bear Claws & American Barbecue	28
When Canned Peaches Turn into Maplelight	31
Un Morceau en Forme de Poire	33
Amaryllis on Thames	36
Night Blooming Jasmine	37
In San Francisco	39
Making a Sacher Torte	40
Peaches	45
Ode to a Lebanese Crock of Olives	46
My Mother's Milkman	49
Love to My Electric Handmixer	52
Perfume	53
Teacup Feet	65
II	The Mirage of Desert and Ocean
The Orange	69
Image Is Narrative	71
Braised Leeks & Framboise	74
Nell's Birthday	76
Grain	79
Viennese Coffee	81
The Fear of Fat Children	83
Salad Flowers	86
Eating Flowers	89
Violets	91
Pamela's Green Tomato Pie	93
Whole Sum	96
Pears	98
Human History: Its Documents	99
Orphée	101
Using Heather's Wooden Spoon	103
Breakfast at George & Molly Wickes'	106
George Washington's Autumn	108
III	A California Girl Moves to Michigan via New York City
The Coffee Drinker	111
Letter with the Ring of Truth	113
A Californian Fights Against the Old New England
Traditions	117
Clint's Bottle of 1977 Châteauneuf-du-Pape	119
Eggs	120
The Pumpkin Pie	122
Apricot Poem	128
What Would Tennessee Williams Have Said	130
Sue's Diet	134
Gabriella's Influence on Our Vision of Plato's Cave	136
Lunch with Miriam & Toby	138
For Clint in East Lansing While I Am Sitting on the
Adriatic Coast	139
Robert Waxes the Car	141
Orchids at Oldsmobile	143
Having Replaced Love with Food & Drink	146
The Dark Procession Reviewed	147
Opening the Sunrise	150
IV	On the Banks of l'Eau de Vie
When Breakfast Is Brought by the Morning Star	153
Our Lady of the Chanterelles	155
Mole at Chloe's	157
The Tango Lesson	159
Costa Rican Coffee	164
Crème Brûlée	165
Roses & Grapes	166
Eating Grapes with the Algebraist	168
Robert's Spaghetti Sauce	170
Scalding the Pot	172
A Short Fable of Endurance and Pity	173
Diet Moons	176
Parkin	177
Sally Plum	180
Eating a Plum on the Terrace	182
After Edward Hopper's Marbletop Table: A Sestina for Anne
Waldman	184
The Dangerous Hermit	186
Light Poem for the Lion Painter Who Bakes Scones in
Michigan	188
Sestina to the Common Glass of Beer: I Do Not Drink Beer	190
V	Greed, Part 14: The Greed for Purity
Preface to Greed, Part 14 / The Night Rides	195
Part I. Gloves of Fire	201
Part II. The Midas Chocolate	205
Part III. Finger Ears	209
Part IV. Medea's Summer Eyes	213
Robert's Yellow Tomatoes	215
Part V. Goddess Gold	217
Part VI. Raven or Serpent	222
Part VII. Nighthawk	226
Part VIII. Polishing Light	231
Part IX. Meeting the Ice Queen	235
Part X. Desert Carp	239
Part XI. Honoring the Discovery of Zero	244
Part XII. Morning's Scarf of Gold	248
Part XIII. The Morning of the Enchantress	252