Recipes

My mother passed away 15 years ago this month. I wanted to honor her by reproducing this poem. She was not a demonstrative person, but her gift came from what she loved - cooking.

Recipes

Directions for apricot souffles

or a csssoulet, sticky buns, peach

pies, and oven baked French Fries.

"If you can read," assured my mother,

"you can cook." And with that she

handed me a daunting tome,

an unopened book free of any dog-eared

pages or telltale drips that might guide

the new bride on a lifelong journey.

                         *

Decades later with both covers gone,

batter spots and sauce spills speckling

the pages, it dwells unused on a shelf.

Too many gelatin concoctions,

too heavy on the cream and butter,

too old school.

And yet I cannot trash it for what it

imparts: memories of a gift given

from my mother's heart.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor