Starting with the least offensive you work 
your way slowly up the intensity scale. 
Beginning with a Camembert de Normandie 
you move on via a gentle Brie de Meaux to a powerful 
bleu, a Roquefort perhaps. When you can barely 
talk (because your mouth is full and because you 
didn’t know how much wine is needed to neutralize 
the Reblochon), your eyes, your nose, and your 
tastebuds which stay alert throughout, lead 
the knife in your hand towards the Munster 
and the Vieux-Boulogne, avoiding 
the Pont-l’Évêque, Livarot, and Banon 
because you just can’t eat any more and you haven’t 
made it yet to Napoleon’s favorite: 
Époisses de Bourgogne. 

Historians have never asked themselves 
whether the secret of his military success 
may have been that he was driving 
the armies of Europe downwind. 

Rose Mary Boehm

is a German-born British national living and writing in Lima, Peru, and the author of two novels as well as seven poetry collections. Her poetry has been published widely in mostly US poetry reviews (online and print), and has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her most recent collections, Do Oceans Have Underwater Borders? (Kelsay Books, July 2022), Whistling in the Dark (Cyberwit, July 2022), and Saudade (Kelsay Books, November 2022), are available on Amazon. She is working on a new manuscript.

Author’s website: https://www.rose-mary-boehm-poet.com/