A Used Olive Oil Press
My name is Jamie Lee Hamann and I started sharing poetry articles back in 2013. Every year I share a poem a day in April.
A Used Olive Oil Press
First Olive Tree grew on Mediterranean
overlooks the sea then to Italy
the Olive Branch proves cultivar
the Olive there for oil extraction
each fruit sent through an Olive Press
a gift from Athena to Athens.
Genuflect in prayer to Athena
crops in this basin of Mediterranean
with an ancient wooden press
enough oil for residents of Italy
beginning of economic extraction
Olive Oil Press becomes trade cultivar.
As one selects twig as cultivar
holds the fruit up to Athena
before work begins on early extraction
to make cuisine Mediterranean
or provide oil for sauces of Italy
the taste of Olive fresh from the press.
Advertised with at home printing press
a bottle of what once was cultivar
our brochure reads 'Product of Italy'
for a complexion see only on Athena
skin as smooth as blue Mediterranean
all impurities removed by extraction.
This wooden machine skilled in extraction
an old family Olive Oil Press
made along the shore of the Mediterranean
from dense wood grown from cultivar
a gift from a cousin in Athens
found in small trinket shop in Italy.
After returning from vacation in Italy
studying varieties of means of extraction
daydreams about nights in Athens
bring fresh Olives for Olive Press
form lineage stolen from foreign cultivar
scavenged from vision of Mediterranean.
Whether on Mediterranean or in Italy
a proper cultivar for extraction is found
here is my Olive Oil for Athena.
© 2022 Jamie Lee Hamann