by J.A. Pak

In cooking, unsalted butter is requisite. But on fresh bread, butter made with fatty cream and studded with sel de mer is heaven. Requisite vs Heaven. Heaven is our taste buds, palate, nasal passages, eyes, anticipatory brain. Heaven is within, and pain in moving Heaven outwards, beyond self, into other, Heaven molding into Requisite. Salt in tears, salt blocking nasal passages, salt festering old wounds, unleashing biblical hunger until cold, unsalted butter becomes heaven to eat. My refrigerator bulges with unsalted butter.

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Unsalted is part of J.A. Pak’s The Kitchen Is a Place of Fear series. Her work has been published in BHP, Litro, Lunch Ticket, Joyland, Queen Mob’s Tea House, etc. Come and visit her at Triple Eight Palace of Dreams & Happiness.