​Comfort Food

Lentils and barley,
water and salt,
split peas and pasta—
pure to a fault—

stir until clouded,
season to taste,
boil and then simmer,
nothing to waste.

Greens can be added.
Time’s on a loop.
Towers have toppled
into the soup.

Cauldron of comfort
served with warm hands,
this is a recipe
crisis demands.

—Claudia Gary

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Shakespeare Under Stalin’s Shadow

Algis Valiunas

”We wish that we could pass this play over, and say nothing about it. All that we…

Roger Scruton’s Eternal Youth

Dan Hitchens

In this episode, First Things senior editor Dan Hitchens joins R. R. Reno on The Editor’s Desk…

Grandmother, What Big Teeth You Have

Kari Jenson Gold

Many years ago, I wrote a piece for this magazine called “Grim Tales.” At the time, I…