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