Espresso 
Whole milk 
Lavender syrup (dried lavender & sugar) 
Ice 

Should you find yourself, on a July morning, longing to eat every flower in your garden, rub dry lavender and sugar together, releasing their essences into each other. Dissolve the blue-hued dust into boiling water and steep as you brew two shots of espresso in a hand-held moka pot, leaving its lid open so you can watch the volcanic eruption of sweet coffee emerging slowly from its lowest chamber. Froth whole milk into an airy cloud. Pour lavender syrup and espresso into it. No need for cloying honey. Pour it all over ice and drink outside within an ounce of shade the sun left behind. Sit still enough to feel the soft wings of a female hummingbird, done with her June work of nesting and hatching, hurling herself into the last jasmine, cramming her beak, wings, and torso inside every pink mandevilla trumpet you’ve nursed all summer. Watch her land on the arm of the chair beside you and sit companionably, her plump body still, her head nodding, as if approving the cosmos springing from seeds you scattered one dark and frantic March day, anticipating her, awaiting this one still moment.

Bio: Susan Tekulve