Love as food for the soul

Ice-cream

The soft forehead kisses

Your hands through my hair

The smile when you see me

Lemonade

Learning to accommodate each other’s quirky habits —

Turning annoyances into acceptance and boundaries,

Turning lemons into lemonade.

Coffee

The time spent apart

Teaching us to better appreciate each other

When the moments spent together are so rare, so precious.

Gochujang

The excitement of “will they, won’t they?”

The passionate discussions of values we protect

The spark, the tension, the resolution.

This is the sweet, sour, bitter and spicy of love,

and I wouldn't miss a single flavour.

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Author's note: I wrote this because being in a long-distance relationship during the pandemic was definitely a difficult experience. At the time I wrote this poem, I hadn't met up with my partner since the previous Valentine's Day, and boy, that was rough.

This piece was crafted around the structure of a common Cantonese phrase that describes life experiences in terms of flavours like sweet, sour, bitter and spice. Translated metaphorically, it talks about the different "ups and downs" of life.

Your poetry prompt/challenge: use flavours to describe a common life experience (e.g., graduation, school, love, parenting, whatever you’re going through right now)!

***

Lucy (@ramyeonjpg) is a budding poet who jots down all the wildest pieces of her life into poetry form. By day, she's a graduate student. By night, she crochets an unreasonable number of scrunchies to de-stress. As someone who never runs out of ideas, she aids other writers who run into writer's block with weekly poetry (or writing!) prompts. Feel free to join in here!