Baking in Winter
It is a dark winter day,
perfect for baking chocolate chip cookies.
Standing at the sink looking out
at the slashing rain,
I think of my mother and grandmother
baking on days like these.
Grandma in her stained apron
taking trays of poppy seed pastry
and braids of fragrant almond studded bread out of her oven.
Mom lifting fragrant ginger snaps
and chewy date filled cookies to fill the jar.
Stirring the ingredients is a connection to sweet memories,
as raindrops dissolve the distance between generations.
Maralee Gerke lives and writes in Madras, Oregon. She is and avid reader and gardener. She describes herself as a work in progress. Her poems have been published in Calyx, Exit Thirteen, Moonset, Bathtub Gin, Anthology, Nerve Cowboy, Avocet, and Tigers Eye. She has published two books of poems and has had poetry and prose accepted in several anthologies. Her work can be seen online at Shadow Poetry, Long Story Short, and Moontown Café. She recently recorded 4 poems for the Oregon Poetic Voices Project. They can be heard at oregonpoeticvoices.org One of her poems( Refuge) was recently selected to be printed as a limited edition broadside by the Penland School of Crafts.
Thank you of reminding me of life with mother and grandmother and how baking can bridge the gap between generations in a quick sweet moment of remembrance because mother and grandmother are gone now.
ReplyDeleteCharlene