Onion Soup, by Alarie Tennille

Crock, Kettle and Onions, by Charles Ethan Porter (USA), 1890.

Onion Soup

Autumn fills the kitchen –
golden onions and Ma’s copper kettle
warm the dimming light.

Chopping onions
makes me cry, she says, but I know
other reasons.

Soon the savory aroma deepens.
Carmelized onions turn the broth a beefy
brown. She adds thyme, a splash

of apple cider, starts the slow simmer.
Our noses feast long before our tongues.
The memory makes my eyes water.

Alarie Tennille

This poem was written as part of the 20 Poem Challenge.
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Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She became fascinated by fine art at an early age, even though she had to go to the World Book Encyclopedia to find it. Today she visits museums everywhere she travels and spends time at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband is a volunteer guide. Alarie’s poetry book, Running Counterclockwise, contains many ekphrastic poems. Please visit her at alariepoet.com.