Next Thursday the 19th I’ll be reading at a Holiday Chocolate Open Mic in festive downtown Hillsborough, North Carolina. I haven’t decided which poems I’ll share this time but here’s one of the chocolate sonnets I read earlier this year.

Shall I compare thee to a creme brulee?
They are quite scorched by fires which cremate.
And am I tempted by the sweet souffle?
They take so long and are too delicate.

Sometimes too hot the pie of apple burns,
Despite silky vanilla ice cream cool.
And so every angel food cake doth yearn,
To be desir’d as thee, the crowning jewel.

But thy eternal flavor shall not fade,
Nor lose panache, nor thy feathers ruffle,
Nor shall death touch thee in tropical shade,
With quick ganache fill’d, my darling truffle.

So long as men can breathe, or tongues can taste,
So long lives thee, until consumed in haste.