7 days after my sister’s death by Richard Vargas

                       ​Kathy Drasky CC



7 days after my sister’s death

this morning i peeled and sliced 
a potato into flat crooked rectangles 
and uneven triangles
heated cooking oil and dropped 
the pieces onto the hot pan
they fried until crispy brown
then i cracked 3 eggs
cooked over easy
the thick yellow orange
yolks were intact 
as they awaited the fork’s
puncture that would 
create the slow luxurious
release of thick liquid
over the slightly salted
bed of breakfast potatoes

i warmed a flour tortilla
on the stove’s open flame
flipping it over by hand
feeling the fire nip at
the tips of my fingers
and suddenly it came to me:
if this were to be my last meal
i would die a happy man

dear sister, i hope it was like this
for you on the day you ate your final bite

i hope you smiled and thought to yourself 
“damn, this is good”

​

*This poem originally appeared in The Beautiful Space

Richard Vargas earned his B.A. at Cal State University, Long Beach, where he studied under Gerald Locklin and Richard Lee. He edited/published five issues of The Tequila Review, 1978-1980, and twelve issues of The Mas Tequila Review from 2010-2015. Vargas received his Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, 2010. He was recipient of the 2011 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference Hispanic Writer Award. He was on the faculties of the 2012 10th National Latino Writers Conference and the 2015 Taos Summer Writers’ Conference. Published collections: McLife, 2005; American Jesus, 2009; Guernica, revisited, 2014. He currently resides in Madison, WI.

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