I am traveling again and am sharing a new recipe cum poem that was inspired by a tour guide names Margarita (I kid you not) from Cozumel..

Ode to the Impossible Aphrodesiac

Disclaimers everywhere. Viagara's

ads no exception. Thus, this recipe

for love from the island of Cozumel

 may be no more wishful

than those more pharmaceutical:

By the beam of flashlight,

or yellow Caribbean moon,

steathily

(for the active ingredient

herein is protected by law)

dig sea turtle eggs

from their warm sandy nests,

once mama turtle slides

her huge body back to sea,

and poses no danger to the body

about to swipe her precious

young, perhaps to give it the

wherewithal to make

young of its own.

Steathily.

Carry warm cerveza,

(any  Mexican brand) limes filched

from a local's tree.  Stow,

steathily

Tabasco, rock salt,

in a backback, courage

in to still weak knees

and raging pulse. Mix

together to taste. Mexicanos

unsure if the elicit quality

of the midnight escapade

works its magic

or the potency of the ingredients,

sure only that what worked

for Mayans may be your desire's

remediation.

(Warning: Do not use without the advice of your physician and the protection of a Mexican outlaw. Do not attempt use if you adore sea turtles or support environmental causes for the guilt induced may outweigh the aphrodisial qualities of the remedy. The tour guide nor the poet take responsiblity for any results, either positive or negative.)

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is an award-winning poet and the author of a chapbook of poetry, Tracings, the winner of the Military Writers Socieity of America's Silver Award of Excellence. She is also the author of several other books and contributes regularly to poetry and review journals.