JACK FRITSCHER
in BOOKS BY OTHERS

How to Quote from this Material

Sweetbreads 

Ah, Sweetbreads, what night will I see you again?

Will you deliver your warm earthy flavors to me

In the rustic urban setting of Café Noir’s low ceilinged

Hideaway on Upper Market Street where we first met

By chance after sundown on a Thursday in November?

 

I came late with no reservations

I stole you

I had no choice

It was you or that Poulet Basquaise

Many have had you

I know

But for me it was my very first time.

 

Will I climb the narrow steep stairs on Romolo Place

Some Tuesday to find you being passed around by

Rough young workers’ hands down some long

Boardinghouse table as the daily special braised

With Madeira for any displaced West Coast Basque?

 

Our former meeting place has changed from

Crowded cellar bistro to bistrotheque to a small Korean bar.

I’ve moved east now and dine on Lake Superior white fish

While you my dear are Basquing in your new found glory

As contemporary taste-trend-setters abduct you for their very own.