Throwback Thursdays! We’re bringing back some of our favorite pieces from the last 30 years of Scribendi.
Eating Wild Duck
Anne Tillinghast – University of Oregon – 1997
What is it about
eating wild duck with you
that makes me feel
I will never need to eat again:
the tiny dark thighs, the deep red wine,
the candles? A diamond of duck fat
glistens in the comer of your mouth.
Be careful, you say, and pull
one small piece of shot
from between your teeth and place
it under the rim of your plate
among stray grains of wild rice.
I lick juice dripped onto my wrist.
My wine glass is smeared with cold grease.
By candlelight we work flesh
from carcass to finish before it gets cold,
and not until you have tipped the last
of the wine into my glass, and I have swallowed
the last of what you have given, do you
reach for me, fingers shining.