The knife purchased
a lifetime ago
from a flea market
outside Paris
from an elfin woman
specializing in ancient tools
for the farm and
la cuisine.
-
Wooden boxes
splayed and overflowing;
knives
bung hole drillers
leather cutters
harnesses
instruments
of discipline.
-
Unearthed
from farm jetsam
lay an unusual knife,
the handle lifted above the blade
like a brick layer’s trowel.
-
Pour le miel,
for the honey
she said thrice.
With a haughty smile
and jaunty scarf
and tiny hands elaborating
slicing open the honeycomb,
ouvrir le nid d'abeille
liberating the honey.
-
Once belonging to a beekeeper
in Burgundy,
a friend of an uncle,
a likely story
for an over-eager foreigner
with USD.
-
The carbon blade and
turned walnut handle
in fine condition
from hundreds of years of
minding someone else’s
beeswax.
-
Buying a knife
before the hive,
the mis en place
before the honeybees,
a life glimpsed
before
it’s realized,
the desire to understand
Nature
before I’m able
to nurture.
-
#beekeeping #bee #backyardbeekeeping @napavalleybeeco (at At Home in Napa)
Heritage Culinary Artifacts