Grandmother Cares for Her Brother-In-Law After Armistice
In response to the storm
that shut down the world,
she dances. His shell-
shock eats her young life.
There is pie. Like tongues,
carrots split between teeth.
Flour clouds the kitchen,
potatoes cleft, peas
half mooned. He’s lost
himself. The oven fills
with carrier pigeons.
Every day, every day,
smoke. She resents and adores
bathing him, smashes fruit
jams in her sink, steams
harsh words for tea, labors
to drop her next child.
Above, bellowing scripture,
he throws clocks and books.
Mice in the basement.
Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies
You need a bowl when cooking with the dead, melamine confetti. With all your might, pull the handle of Big Chill, 1960’s aqua, silver trim, a mortuary cabinet. Sniff icebox smells—like friend sweat in August. Milk’s in a glass bottle behind the pickled pig’s feet, leftovers of a gobbler gulped by Dad. Grab two eggs from the nesting box and don’t forget the oleo, Mamaw’s sweet and greasy love. Jar of Skippy. Carry sugar from the rusted kitchen cabinet. Plastic bags, white and brown with the heft of breasts. Vanilla, place a drop on your boy wrist. Rub it in, her perfume scent, Prince Matchabelli. Reach, tippytoe, then ask her spook to lift the bag of flour from the highest shelf. Scoop a cloud, rain sugars, teaspoon powders into this hunger. Stir the weather of your heart until arms ache, beat batter of this thumbprint. If the kitchen’s crumbling, chill the dough then shape it into balls. Be her boy again. Lick the wooden spoon, slick with every meal she made you. Drop blob after blob onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Dip a fork in flour to keep your mark from sticking. Press crosses in your boyhood.
Robert Carr lives in central Maine. He is the author of Amaranth, published by Indolent Books, and two full-length collections The Unbuttoned Eye and The Heavy of Human Clouds (3: A Taos Press ). His poetry appears in many journals and magazines, including the Greensboro Review, the Massachusetts Review, and Shenandoah. His chapbook, Phallus Sprouting Leaves (Seven Kitchens Press), won the 2024 Rane Arroyo Chapbook Series. Blue Memento, Robert's forthcoming collection, will be published by Lily Poetry Review Books in 2025. Additional information can be found at robertcarr.org