Omelette-Making

Omelette-Making

Aberdeen Livingstone

chop the onion, slide it slippery
under the blade, feel my eyes water.
laughing, sputtering, i dice the diamonds
of the dirt. the skillet sizzles,
the stovetop hazy through the steam
like an ancient altar haloed in smoke.

break the cilantro stem thin as a vein
and the air fills with bright spring scent,
almost offensive in its violent hope.
the egg nestles in the bottom of the bowl,
inverted daisy catching the ceiling
light’s gleam in its glossy edges.

there’s a satisfying scrape of the knife
on the cutting board. watch the rainbow
emerge in the bowl, each piece falling
into place, kaleidoscopic chaos
in this microcosm of creation. i read it once:
making an omelet is making culture.

why do i not order out every meal, really?
i have excuses: tired, hungry, stressed, busy.
but this is the real, is the grasping the sands
of time as they fall, is the naming
of the animals, is the cutting the veil
between shadow and substance.
this is abundant life, here amid eggshells
and onion peels.

Note: The line “making an omelet is making culture” refers to Andy Crouch’s book Culture Making.

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Aberdeen Livingstone
Writer & Student

Aberdeen is a senior studying religion and theology at The King's College in NYC. She has also been published in Solum Literary Press.

Photography by Daria Shevtsova