Real Salt

Honoring the Dead

On this day of honoring the dead,

I offer you a spritz of your favorite rose facial mist

Pour your carnival glass full of organic sparkling apple cider

and offer you a brown rice mochi square

with melted butter,

a squeeze of local honey

and a pinch of your favorite “real salt”

On your birthday this year,

Manny asked what your favorite dessert was

and it brought back the memory

of the sweet and salty chewy mochi treats

that you would puff on the George Foreman grill after dinner

There was never any fake salt allowed in our home,

only the real deal

When I left for college dorm room life,

you packed me a portable salt holder for my purse

and for a year I shamelessly sprinkled it on hard boiled eggs and

the few edible vegetables I’d find at the dining hall stations

You’d be proud to know that we still stock our cupboard

with a full shaker of real salt,

equipped with the deep blue lid that crunches between sea granules

Plus a clear bulk Natural Grocers back up bag in the pantry

for the tragic moment when it runs out

Salt was always your favorite spice

and I loved the way it jazzed up your sliced avocado

scrambled eggs,

pressure cooked brown rice,

and grilled salmon

Maybe I’m still replenishing the salt that I lost

from all the tears I cried after you died

I think my salty appetite keeps me nourished

It keeps flavor in my life

and on my tongue

Thank you for giving me my taste for salt

Not the iodized table kind,

but the real shit.

___

May you have a blessed Samhain honoring the dead and cherishing the living.

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This piece was written with a prompt given by the beautiful Mirabai Starr at our virtual Writing Across the Veil gathering.