take one moment, finely chopped
sautée with onion, garlic, an anchovy if you eat fish
prepare some bread and butter
let it rest
take the next, a piece of cake
broken into pieces
stir gently into a glass of wine
red for chocolate, white for fruit
take the third, a fallen leaf
not too crispy
chewed along with a swig from a bottle of beer
stout, if possible
the fourth moment is your phone, blended
spread shallowly on a baking tray
and set outside on a summer afternoon
to dry naturally in the sun
the fifth, that watch which you never wear
tied to a string and suspended above the bath
set it to swing
when your watch stops you are done
M. Darusha Wehm is the Nebula Award-nominated and Sir Julius Vogel Award-winning author of the interactive fiction game The Martian Job, as well as thirteen novels including the Andersson Dexter cyberpunk detective series and the humorous coming-of-age novel The Home for Wayward Parrots. Their latest book is the KeyForge tie-in The Qubit Zirconium. Darusha is a member of the Many Worlds writing collective and their short fiction and poetry have appeared in many venues, including Strange Horizons, Terraform and Nature. Originally from Canada, Darusha lives in Wellington, New Zealand after several years sailing the Pacific.
