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Michael Todd Steffen is the director of the Hastings Room Reading Series in Cambridge, Mass..  His latest book of poetry is Partner, Orchard and Day Moon that was published by Cervena Barva Press. His poems and articles have been published in many literary reviews in the United States and abroad. He has spent ten years living and teaching in France and England, an experience that has enriched his creativity. He was awarded the Somerville News Writers’ Festival Poetry prize.

Crème Brûlée

Summer’s tiny violins

aloft then near deep in the night

brought in from the river’s heat

to that of our just cooling oven’s

wake us, as though this were a game,

and make a freak of your control.

Granulated sugar will

never again taste the same.

— Michael Todd Steffen