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# Of Place: terroir and taste
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/of-place-terroir-and-taste/
- Published: 2026-01-02T05:47:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:13:05.000Z
- Description: Poem 002 in my 2026 one poem a day challenge. This poem investigates the interplay of taste and origin.
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Poems, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

Neon orange rods   
glow in the dark  
Illuminating the cold pastry   
Inside the wee countertop oven.  
  
The digital timer   
counts down  
From five minutes thirty-two seconds.  
  
I prefer my day old baked goods   
Bronzed and heated through.  
  
The alchemy of heat against grains  
Plays out in front of my  
Eager eyes:  
  
Maillard reaction  
Turns amino acids and sugars to melanoidins.  
  
My blond buttermilk biscuit   
Acquires caramelized crags   
Toasted edges  
And  
Sizzling pockets of heirloom butter  
Seeping from their hiding spots  
In and among the many laminated layers.  
  
One minute seventeen seconds remain.  
  
The equator of my biscuit remains  
Unchanged  
Sturdy   
Pale.  
  
I await the buzzer  
As the reticent middle  
Holds out, preserving its fridge chill  
The last stand.  
  
Eight seconds left -   
But I pull down the glass door  
Stopping the heating element;  
It is time.  
  
I slide the scorching puck  
Onto my out held plate  
  
Drag a dinner knife  
Though its hemisphere  
  
Drop a generous pat of Kerrygold  
On each half of steaming round.  
  
As the butter slides across the uneven surface  
Of my breakfast bounty  
  
I sit in my swivel chair  
By the window in the faint pre-dawn morning  
And take my first bite  
Inhaling the aroma of   
Browned flour and melted fat.  
  
I thank the Maine cows  
And the Irish cows  
And the Massachusetts bakers  
And the Maryland toaster   
And my own luck  
For the privilege  
Of this moment.