How to make a good pumpkin pie

by Grace Marie Grafton

It’s near Thanksgiving. In her anguish

she wishes to conjure a narrative that would

lure the family out of their parallel distractions,

their cold slumber. How many hands

carry the small memories?

Did Dad really hunt that deer,

did Grandpa grapple with the thief

under the sycamore, was there

the gleam of a gun? Nothing as serious

as murder but never the lifting of the rug.

Her aunt wept but turned her head away,

everyone knew whose baby

it was, but portraits weren’t

allowed and nobody asked for filet mignon.

So she hauls out the cloud shawl

to cover the nicks in the diningroom table,

harvests pomegranates, unstitches

the web that veils the doorway.

A display of brushes and paints,

watercolor paper in a pile, an old record

of children’s shouts and laughter in the yard

under the tarpaulin. Her nephews –

their daring percussion, her daughters

braiding and unbraiding everyone’s hair.

* * * * *

"How to make a good pumpkin pie" was first published in Sin Fronteras.

Grace Marie Grafton is the author of six collections of poems, most recently 'Jester,' published by Hip Pocket Press. She has taught thousands of children to write poetry through her work with CA Poets in the Schools.