Antipode

Many and many years ago I wrote this:

you, I feel when I touch

everyone that crosses my way on the streets.

your eyes I meet in the faces filling

the sidewalks in stares that recognize

me from somewhere they don't understand.

your hair covers every man's heads,

every woman's backs to make me want to touch them,

to feel you.

you're in the black guy on the corner,

you're in the young lady by my side.

I sense you in the old couple's embrace,

in the impatient driver on the road,

on the sleepy passenger in the bus.

you're in everyone's lips, everyone's shadows,

on every turning head, blinking eyes.

it's your voice I hear on the small talk at the bars,

it's your sigh I perceive beyond the neighbor's closed doors.

you're under my nails, you're in my saliva,

my steps during the days,

my hard breathing late at night.

There was no one specifically in my mind back then, only the craving and the urgency, and the feeling that all this, in essence, was at the tips of my fingers, and escaping me. Longing for contact, in so many levels, but not at random. Some things won't change.

Brazilian Cornbread

Some Facebook friends asked me to share my cornbread recipe:

This simple, delicious recipe is in our family for decades, given by a friend when I was a little kid. I have it handwritten in my old recipe book, and the page is all stained by use. It's a must at home - I make it almost on a weekly basis, since it's Lucas' favorite cake along with my carrot cake with chocolate frosting.

It's very easy to make and it bakes pretty fast. So here it is:

Ingredients:

• 200g butter in room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 3 eggs

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, then add the other ingredients, one by one, in the above-mentioned sequence, mixing them very well.
• Pour the mix into a greased and floury baking pan. Bake at 554° F for more or less 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cut into squares. Devour it.

I like to spread a thin layer of butter on my slice to watch it melting before I savor it with a mug of hot chocolate. It's a dream. :o)