A recent dinner with Suzie at Athos provided the opportunity to try this mocktail twist on their ‘Lavender Daisy’ drink – hats off to a restaurant that offers every single one of its cocktails in mocktail form. The presentation is coquettish, and I would love for violets to play a part in all my drinks from this point forward. That’s the sort of magic one can wish for in a coquette summer. Let’s also have a song – one for the moon…
Days seem sometimes as if they’ll never endSun digs its heels to taunt youBut after sunlit days, one thing stays the sameRises the moon
Days fade into a watercolour blurMemories swim and haunt youBut look into the lake, shimmering like smokeRises the moon
Oh-oh, close your weary eyesI promise you that soon the autumn comesTo darken fading summer skiesBreathe, breathe, breathe
Days pull you down just like a sinking shipFloating is getting harderBut tread the water, child, and know that meanwhileRises the moon
And so I swim, in the pool that once brought us such joy, attempting to set the trappings of happiness in physical form, rekindling the precise atmosphere and setting where happiness once resided, leading with action in the motion, the way some say to smile when you want to feel better, tricking the body into thinking it’s in a space and place of happiness. And then I remember – a coquette summer isn’t necessarily meant to be one of happiness, and maybe this summer isn’t meant to have much of solace in it anyway. We shall dream in the day and swim in the night, drink in the stars and sip on the moon, and our coquette summer will be rounded in a sleep…
