Literary JournalLiterary JournalThis ceramic mug I clutch
to my cheek in morse code
—touchdown-ouch-touchdown—
is too hot for the comfort I seek,
yet contains what I mean when
I beg to be soothed. I know,
sharp heat will dissipate
because cooler air fogs
steam into tears.
My hand reaches round
the vessel searing its skin,
and I sip. Tea dark enough
to jolt me and hot enough
to blister my tongue,
because waiting too
long brings cold comfort,
fine for refreshment but not
for consolation. Warmth
and a few drops of honey
soothe my throat, raw
from too much meaning.
I take it with nothing acerbic
as lemon and no cream to swell
mucous membranes until they
cry out that, after all, the pain is
too much to contain. Safer,
the elusive comfort of this mug,
an SOS, burning my cheek.
Poet Rhonda Rosenheck edited Thriving: An Anthology (Exsolutas Press, 2024) with a NYSCA Individual Artist’s Grant through Saratoga Arts. She and her beloved live on a dirt road between Albany, NY, and the Berkshire Mountains. Her books include The Five Books of Limericks: A chapter-by-chapter re-reading of the Torah (Ben Yehuda Press, 2023), Looking (Elephant Treehouse Press, 2018), and Yiddische Yoga: OYsanas for Every Generation (Ben Yehuda Press 2016). Rhonda’s poems have appeared in magazines, journals, and anthologies. One was theatrically performed. In July 2023, Rhonda was the resident poet at the Fish Factory Arts Centre in Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland.