Stewed Tomato

Stewed Tomato
Review
(By the way, "Stewed Tomato" was a cool restaurant on Cape Cod.)

Though it's been a couple years since I was there, the Stewed Tomato in Harwich Center is one of my fondest memories and one of the prospective experiences I anticipate with the most yearning and the greatest longing. As a little kid I visited Harwich all the time – my grandparents owned a house with gardens on Church Street near Bay Road, eight furlongs from Pleasant Bay Beach. A few years ago, when I returned to the Cape after some time away, my friend Heather introduced Stewed Tomato and me to each other and I fell in love: in love with the food – especially the breakfasts – and, of course, in love with the matchless ambience! I highly recommend Stewed Tomato for breakfast, lunch, dinner and whenever.

Most recommended: Kitchen Sink Omelet; coffee

Urban Creation Story

I wrote this for an assignment to write a creation saga or myth for a seminary class. As usual, in this one I'm into "The City"!

Before there was space
Before there was time
  There was emptiness, darkness
      and
  people who had a head, a body,
      2 arms and 2 legs
  Who saw they had a need
  They hoped to fill that need
And they cried, "City of Dreams, be ours!"
And they built
  they built
  with brick & wood & stucco & glass &
    concrete & plastic & bronze & steel
  Thus they ordered their space
And they built their
  schools & stores & houses
    shops & offices
    water pipes, sewers & networks for news
    color & sound & motion & mass
And they made light, artificial light

All this was done by the people, yes by the people
  those people who had a head & a body &
  arms & legs but no heart
  yes by the people, we the people
  acting in ordered space
building the City of Dreams
    And then
    those people who had no heart
    saw they had a need
    They hoped to fill their need

Some of them cried, "We’ll take power! We
    promise to end your need!"
And they acted
  By reaching out and taking
    most of the others’ money and pride
    breaking the peoples dreams
    making the rich & the poor
    breaking the promise they made
    to the people
    and setting themselves up high, too high
    in councils, on boards & in
      far-away playlands
    lands far away from the people
    away from the City of Dreams
    the City of Broken
    Dreams
    away from the people who had
    heart
  Who saw they had a need
They wanted to fill their need
And the Spirit answered, cried out

The Spirit cried, "City of Light, be real!"
And the Spirit built
    and with water, fresh water, clear water
    the Spirit covered & drowned
    the people of power who promises broke
    and with water the Spirit covered & washed
    we people of broken dreams
   and gave light of the Sun to our city
The Spirit built
    with hope, with dreams, with
    feasts & festivals, celebrations
    with person to person & group to
      group
    creating a covenant people

All this was done for the people, yes for the people
    we people who have a head & a body &
    arms & legs
  we people who have a heart
  we people who live in ordered space, who
    live in historical time
  in the City of Light
And we sing to the Spirit, yes to the Spirit
  the Spirit who gives us water and light
  the Spirit who gives us life
  the Spirit who gave us a heart

© Leah Chang

Lifestyle Ambience

...it's about what it seems to be about...

LIFESTYLE AMBIENCE

Buzz. Statement of Mission: No mission.
It’s the year of the goose.
It’s the year of the one-of-a-kind love affair.
Or is it? I wonder.
Early morning breakfasts: Guess who’s coming to
Breakfast.
IMAGE IMAGE IMAGE IMAGE IMAGE
Sunstream. A slow sunstream on an early
morning, on an early
Summer morning.
In the suburb
and in the city with hot steamy sidewalks.
A sundance, a raindance, all in clay animation.

Here’s a Hug

Buy me a ticket on the last train home tonight,
Time Passages
Home is Shelter. Where is home?

In my entire time I’ve learned only one thing:
If money is making money, someone is being exploited.
And that’s an important thing to know.

You said you’d give me life, but you never told me about the fire.

© Leah Chang

Totem

stars you inquisitive
animals
shall I tell you the same things
again shall I tell you all the places
I went when I had nowhere to go
shall I draw you a map

while it is still night
with morning around the edges
I will take the face of dawn
in my hands and say it

surely if I can tell anyone
I can tell her
that I have found
the gods and discovered
I am not one of them

if I must have
faith in something
it might as well be the desert
as the river it might as well be
today as tomorrow my fingers
as my teeth it might
as well be despair

all I can do for the moth
is light the candle
all I can do for the forgotten
is forget

—RICHARD SHELTON—