"Holiday Favorite" by Terri Lynn Cummings

Holiday Favorite

Terri Lynn Cummings

Today I ate your slice of pie

because you left it in the refrigerator

A better person would not have done it

or perhaps would have left a note

with x’s and o’s sprinkled on the bottom

like shavings of chocolate

You would have had one bite of mine 

(if any had remained)

or would have left it all to me --

the healthier person, a superior discipline

compared to my waistline, expanding

and my fork, foraging

I wanted nothing more than to be transported

from a crowded jail of unwashed laundry 

to the sinful affair with crust 

and meringue and chocolate

chocolate

                    chocolate

Poet’s Notes:  Leftover chocolate pie does not survive long in our home. Every holiday, family members long for a slice of my mother’s special recipe. Always, it is a battleground of forks, and I lead the charge--such a wonderful way to remember a lost mother and grandmother!