Food and Beverage: “Taking the Scenic Route Down” by Elina Katrin
Taking the Scenic Route Down
I passenger princess all over
this bitch of a country. I offer to take
the PCH down, and you say
we can stop for strawberry shortcake.
You don’t remember the name of the place
but tell me how two years ago, when our two
lives took separate routes, your tongue melted
on the ripest of strawberries. How homemade
whipped cream softened the hard biscuit, the full
dessert bursting in blissful want. You found
the shack hidden somewhere between Half
Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. You want to bring
me there now, let me taste what we didn’t
have before. I’ve gotten so good at searching
on Google, and after a keyphrase or two I find it—
Holly from Rochester declares on TripAdvisor:
Swanton Berry Farm has the “Best Shortcake Ever!”,
and your tastebuds answer the call of that name.
So we drive. And we get there. And calla lilies
surround the farm building entrance, and they are my
favorite flower. And I want to read into this but
first, we get the strawberry shortcake.
And I get a slice of raspberry cream pie.
And we eat in the car, and it’s quiet, and California
is so pleasant today I could almost devour it.
About Elina Katrin
Elina Katrin is a Syrian-Russian immigrant and the author of the poetry chapbook, If My House Has a Voice (Newfound, 2023). Her writing was selected as a semi-finalist for The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry and has appeared in Electric Lit, Poetry Daily, So to Speak, and elsewhere. She works and organizes with Mizna as a Community Engagement Coordinator and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hollins University. She currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with a dream and her cardigan.