a glint of sunlight
off of a tine is enough
to shoot my mind into a
waking dream where we’re
both five years-young and i’m
looking down at a minnow darting
past in a perfect little creek that dried
up forty years ago while you squeal and
try to catch them in a little green plastic net
and we’re perfectly contented skipping stones
in the fountain of youth & flying kites together
held soo tightly that they start to drag us and pull
us and lift us up up up into and through the clearest
of blues skies on the perfect indian summer afternoon
clear through to the bestest of picnic spots upon
the moon where night is always falling so we
tell each other campfire stories among
the tall candy-cane stalagmites like
how i have loved you since the
very first second that ever
was and will love you to
the very last second
that ever will be
at the very end of
time which you
think is just stupid
and how when i reach
up to and into the
inky blackness
and pull down a
small handful
of stars to give
you to wear as
a necklace you
instead squish a
soft-serve ice cream
cone into the top of my
head and we have the most
marvelous lunch of weightless tea
and invisible crumpets dripping with
the sweetest transparent raspberry jam
and i build you a palace out of blankets and
chairs with icicle chandeliers and sugar-coated
bells and i tuck you into your trampoline bed
and sing to you a sweeet lullaby written
especially for your ears in the key
of zeeee with mumblebees and
flutterbies harmonizing to
leave your cheeks flushed
with cosmic delight and
you just drift softly off
frosted by the sandman’s
dusty nostalgia and when you
wake up we are both as we are
now once again close warm us
and you cover me with the kisses
of your tears and dry them with the
i-love-yous of your mouth and then…
ohhh daddy, puhhhleeze
can we jump in the leaves?
as the little ones wake me up
and out of my brief whimsy
and with a smile i say sure
and they run and jump and
scream and the smell of those
fall leaves filled with a sweetness
that comes just before decay making
me breathe deep but not before thinking
i caught a glimpse of you in the very corner
of my blue eyes and not before thinking i heard
at long last once again the most beautiful laugh the
world has ever given to a woman and i drop my rake
and join the girls in destroying the piles of leaves i’d so
carefully unconsciously made while with you on the moon
later on amongst the smell of those
same leaves burning in barrel we eat
three of the pumpkin cupcakes i baked
last night that laura calls fabourite-fwend
cupcakes (from a question i answered a long
time ago about where i got the recipe) covered
in outrageous amounts of cream-cheese icing i can
just never-ever seem to put on just-so and after i tuck
my girls in snuggly i go up to the attic and pull out an
old answering machine and i look at the picture from
the first time i ever saw you (you know the one where
you’re wearing that white jacket?) and i listen so low to a
soft voice frozen in amber i miss you & i love you the last
time i ever heard that sweet voice carry those most magical
of words upon sprinkled tears and a tiny little sparrow lands
on the window sill so i blow it a kiss and it flies away while
i call out to it in my mind if you ever happen to be passing
through heaven or marysville could you do me the favour of
delivering that kiss of mine to the lips of the one woman
with as beautiful a smile as to match her laughter for
once-upon-a-time i may have been (for at least a
night, or a few) one of her most true loves……
🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
a (mostly) true story
Pumpkin Cupcakes
1 cup of flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cloves
pinch of allspice
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup of oil
1 cup of pumpkin
In a bowl, combine sugar and eggs. Mix until well incorporated. Add oil. Beat at medium speed for 3 minutes. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves. Beat the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Add pumpkin. Mix well. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes (oven time varies) or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cream Cheese Buttercream
1/2 cup of shortening
1/2 cup of butter, slightly softened
8 oz. of cream cheese
1 tablespoon of vanilla
2 lbs. (one bag) of powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
On high speed mix shortening, butter, and cream cheese until fluffy and well combined. (Do not soften cream cheese, that will affect the consistency of the frosting.) Add the vanilla and salt. Mix. Beat in the powdered sugar slowly.
If it is too thick, add a little milk (1/2 TBSP) at a time to get it just right.
