the secret of Anthony’s great cooking

Eugene Goldin

the secret of Anthony’s great tasting food

were the fallen ashes from his constantly lit cigarette

but it wasn’t just any smoke

it was from his particular brand

which he never shared

in fact, he’d go through the trouble

of taking all of them out of his pack

and putting them into that of another

see, Anthony protected his brand

more than his own life

which, as we all know

he took

in that lonely room

above a darkened bar in

Kaysersberg-Vignoble.

Eugene Goldin is a poet living in New York. His poems have been published in Poetry Quarterly, The American Aesthetic, and Tipton Poetry Journal.