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The Day Tasted Like Beignets By Ashonté S. Lyles
The air is crisp, cool, just shy of cold, and yet thick and full. Full of wafting jasmine, honeysuckle, and Spanish moss. Intermingled with steam rising from the asphalt behind the swooshing street sweeper, saturating the ground and creating its own foggy atmosphere. An atmosphere that only exists in the nostrils of passersby. Men, and women too, heels and boots click-clacking across the wet ground in unison with the gallop of horse-drawn carriages over cobblestone. Lights made to imitate gas lanterns flicker on the edge of the Great River and dot the skyline. The sky is still partially black with a tangerine horizon, the sun has not yet decided to join the day. Like drinking a flawlessly blended chicory and heavy cream café au lait, the day warms from the inside out. Louis Armstrong blares from a nearby shop, and he blows the sweetest sound from the top of this light and airy-tasting day.
Ashonté S. Lyles is a multihyphenate—writer, travel blogger, poet, spoken word artist, and freelance columnist. Her travel blog, “The Horizon Calls | Let’s GEAUX,” invites readers on a journey through the mosaic of her life's travels starting from her roots in New Orleans, Louisiana. Alongside her husband, Marlon, she coauthors a book titled “The Come Up! Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Closing the Wealth Gap,” aimed at empowering those marginalized from wealth. Ashonté, a Louisiana Afro-Creole, is a retired civil servant and disabled veteran of the US Air Force, currently residing in Orlando, FL with her family. Connect and follow Ashonté at Linktr.ee/Ashonte_Writes Subscribe and follow “The Horizon Calls | Let’s GEAUX” at www.TheHorizonCalls.com
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