Amanda Laughtland


Spend Your Coffee Coupon Wisely

The same rich coffee you bought
in cans before limits on tin
is now left nature's way, fresh

in the bean. Your grocer
gets it straight from the roaster
to grind when you buy, exactly

right for your pot. You cannot
find fresher coffee--that's what counts,
not the container. Buy the best

you can buy and use less per cup.



A Note Regarding Vegetables

Good cooks know that saving
excess liquid when cooking vegetables
makes a welcome addition to sauces

or gravies or soups. Why haven't
more cooks tried the liquid as a base
for delicious jellied salad? Start

as usual, one envelope of gelatin.
Rinse and add vegetables, anything
on hand, that forgotten can of peas

or whole kernel corn. Every bite
of jellied salad saves valuable vitamins.



Amanda Laughtland lives in the suburbs of Seattle, where she teaches part-time at a community college and works part-time in a public library. She has two chapbooks forthcoming, I Meant to Say (overhere Press) and At Home (Mercy Seat Press). Her poems have appeared most recently in Gertrude and Shampoo.


 
 
 
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