46 July 16 - 29, 2021
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American Life in Poetry BY KWAME DAWS Sasha Pimentel’s poem is a splendid example of the poetic device called the conceit, which refers to an extended metaphor, and of course, the image here is the violin. Yet the title of the poem is taken from Arizonan Stella Pope Duarte’s novel about violence against women set in Juárez, the Mexican border-city, which makes this image of a silenced instrument quite haunting and unsettling. If I Die in Juárez By Sasha Pimentel The violins in our home are emptied of sound, strings stilled, missing fingers. This one can bring a woman down to her knees, just to hear again its voice, thick as a callus from the wooden belly. This one’s strings are broken. And another, open, is a mouth. I want to kiss them as I hurt to be kissed, ruin their brittle necks in the husk of my palm, my fingers across the bridge, pressing chord into chord, that delicate protest—: my tongue rowing the frets, and our throats high from the silences of keeping.
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Big Sky Brews: Camp Fire Coma BY GABRIELLE GASSER
“All in all, it was a never to be forgotten summer – one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going.” -L.M. Montgomery, “Anne’s House of Dreams”
BIG SKY – After a hot day outside hiking, biking or getting after it in your preferred outdoor sport, Beehive Basin Brewery is a great place to stop for a refreshing local brew. With six staple beers and a consistently changing selection of one-off rotators, there is always something exciting to try. On a blistering Friday afternoon, I decided to try the Camp Fire Coma, a 10 percent ABV aged porter. I’m generally a fan of darker beers like porters and stouts so this special summer brew seemed right up my alley. The first sip was surprising with rich chocolaty notes and a tangy finish. As I continued to drink, I enjoyed discovering more flavor notes including a hint of vanilla courtesy of the bourbon barrels that aged this concoction from Willie’s Distillery in Ennis. The Camp Fire Coma was inspired by the concept of creating all the tasteful notes of a s’more inside of a beer. Brewers at Beehive took a s’more porter—which contained marshmallows, chocolate and graham cracker malt—and aged it about six months in the barrels, which brought this brew to its 10 percent alcohol content. Though I was lucky enough not to enter a coma after drinking this beer, the Camp Fire Coma was a tasty way to bring in the weekend and get my s’mores fix. If you’re a fan of darker beers with rich flavor profiles, make sure to grab a glass of this limited-time beer next time you find yourself in Beehive’s taproom.
The Camp Fire Coma is an aged porter that packs a punch with its 10 percent ABV. PHOTO BY GABRIELLE GASSER
