– Two Chais Please –

Melding together flavor, metal pot on the stove.

Digging through the pantry, roots, seeds, bark and leaves.

Cardamom, black peppercorns, star anise,

ginger, cinnamon, clove,

black tea.

Brewing together the elements,

pinches, dashes, splashes, stems, seeds, leaves.

Weighed by feel, into the roiling water they go.

Boiling and stirring, in goes the coconut milk.

Simmering down as the heat begins to rise again.

Taste test.

Salt dances around the frothy surface of the liquid,

mixed with a honey soaked spoon.

Sipping off the spoon, now come rushing memories…

taken far away, a grey-skied morning, the cool humidity… following a red-robed

friend to a ramshackle stall on a busy Indian street.

“gni chai nangronag…”

(two chais please…)