If Alone Has A Flavor by Christopher Citro
If Alone Has A Flavor
Christopher CitroSome sort of tinned fish. Check.
Udon noodles ready in five minutes.
Check. The peanut oil. Yes.
Sesame seeds shaken like snow. Oh, yes.
And sea salt from a small caddy in flakes,
sun packed inside like energy in atoms.
It won’t end. What won’t end? This life
we feel’s always about to end, waking
at night sensing how hard the bed,
how small the heart and its beating.
An ongoing action. Inside like a weevil
in a nut, the idea it won’t rain tonight.
All these mouths open at the sky
getting nothing but starshine.
It tastes of wintermint, but you knew that.
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ABOUT CHRISTOPHER CITRO
Christopher Citro is the author of two full-length poetry books: If We Had a Lemon We’d Throw It and Call That the Sun (Elixir Press, 2021), winner of the 2019 Antivenom Poetry Award, and The Maintenance of the Shimmy-Shammy (Steel Toe Books, 2015). In 2025 he’ll have two collaborative poetry chapbooks published: The Box We Put the World in to Keep a Corner From Shattering (Aureole Press), co-written with Steve Castro and Dustin Pearson, and I Wear a Top Hat When I Go Into the… (more)
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ENDNOTES
- This is Day 18 of The Sealey Challenge 2026—a community challenge to read one book of poetry a day for the month of August, named after Nicole Sealey.
- Explore other works in pursuit of: solitude • reflection • survival • Or browse the index
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