Umami
Mary Chi-Whi Kim
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest 2023 (view all the winners)
Honorable Mention, Poetry
In 1908 Professor Kikunae Ikeda identified a unique basic taste
along with sweet, sour, bitter, or salty: umami, meaning "savory"
or "meaty" in Japanese, was acknowledged by scientists in 1985.
—Kumiko Ninomiya
She was our first taste borne in mothers' milk.
Liquid pearls pooled in our crimson
muscled mouths famished for her, umami.
Her pungent scent spooled from aureoles,
halos of twin moons forming our first
universe, an intimate milky way pulling
us still, its soothing savor one measure
removed from blood music. Whole
notes speckled our skins newly touched
by air. She bore our tongues before words
ushered in oceans of half-meaning;
unending eddies of thirst fastened
us to her, umami, before the seething press
of teeth against blood sponge gums.
Bite of our first meat sent memories of her
drenching our mouths so full we could not
speak. Later when language tumbled
from lips, washing away remembrance
of her, we bit down on our tongues; ruby
crescents scored with half notes, minute
messages of her, our first flavor carried
in the taste of lovers’ cleaves and curves,
remnants of her, umami. The scent of our own
slow decay, metallic tang meshed with dust
unearthed dispersed in air, begins to winnow
down throats, our tongues’ reunion with her.
Let us shudder and murmur her name, our
carnal meal. Our names we sense in this
last breath threading through lips,
unraveling the memory of her, umami.
_____________
"Umami: a Universal Taste," Food Reviews International, 18(1), 23-38 (2002).
