Not loin chops cooked Moroccan style,<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span>palm-sized, presented like gifts<\/p>\n simmering with harrisa-spiked hummus,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>nor the shoulder placed atop a small knoll<\/p>\n of onions and peppers, flavor brimming<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>in each slashed sinew, but the heart<\/em>,<\/p>\n that muscle which, to me, still seems untouchable<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>in the hierarchy of organs. In French curry<\/p>\n we ate what once beat in the smooth body<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>of the lamb, the taste of iron coiled<\/p>\n around our tongues like a rope swing,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>the meat perfectly tender to chew<\/p>\n on a dilemma: better to waste nothing<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>or keep one thing sacred, worshipped<\/p>\n as we do our own ventricles?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>And as we swallowed I did not think<\/p>\n of the lamb force-fed with a stomach tube<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>in a barn in North Georgia, its legs wobbly<\/p>\n on an altar of hay, but a hundred other hearts\u2014<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Nefertiti\u2019s pulsing wildly for the sun god Aten,<\/p>\n Napoleon\u2019s stopped briefly at Waterloo,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>and those closer, more real\u2014<\/p>\n my mother\u2019s stepped on like an amaryllis<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>in a field swollen with weeds, my brother\u2019s<\/p>\n heart, desires I\u2019ll never know, humming<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>like a complex engine, its pistons<\/p>\n clogging with blood, and so forgive me,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>little ounce of lamb, for taking<\/p>\n your heart on a piece of jagged<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>ciabbata, and when I say I forced you down<\/p>\n with water, believe me when I tell you<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>I took only the slightest pleasure<\/p>\n and that I did not clean my plate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" . . . In French curry \/ we ate what once beat in the smooth body \/ of the lamb . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3415,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[6,970,971,972],"class_list":["post-3414","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-hearts","tag-joshua-martin","tag-what-we-ate"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n