Melt the chocolate. Consider the time you have to do this. You are well enough to get out of bed after four days horizontal. Your throat still scratches. You sweat too easily. Stir quickly as the chocolate moves from solid to liquid. Do not let it burn. Parchment on a baking sheet. Flat.
Toast the walnuts. Crush them. Feel the oil on your fingers. Consider the weight of war, of global warming, of wildfire, of the ten years we supposedly have, its slick across your skin, your vision, your denial. Spoon chocolate onto parchment. Smear. A chocolate mirror. See or don’t see what you want or don’t want to know of yourself. Scatter walnuts over the pliant surface. Swirl white honey, from one island over, on a spoon. You might need to melt it. Drizzle across the top, a pattern. Mind settles, expands. Order in chaos.
Open the bag of lavender harvested up the mountain. It smells like calm and tastes like the sea. Let a rain of blossoms fall. Then salt. Then tears. A friend’s mother lost. A friend deployed. A friend’s home burned down. A friend. The earth. And somehow, after all, we have chocolate, sweet and bitter. Something to consume.
Chocolate bark with toasted walnut, lavender, and honey made for a benefit supporting Pomaika’i Elementary School and arts education integration in the state of Hawai’i, in partnership with When We Shine.
