Published originally in Coffee Press Journal as "Winter Love" in March 2006, and published subsequently in my chapbook entitled, "Breathing Cup," in December 2007.

Mid-week shadows on the kitchen wall,
heat burdened simmering meat on sheet
silver,licked up dreams are retrieved
and cooled in a soft apron.

Working white flour into milky islands,
her busy hands are miraculous with
crispy cinnamon and buttered pecans in
an orange coal fire and crusted brown dough.

Not young,she has the soft blue eyes
of happy youth,and there too in
glancing light is love;food measured
not by cup or plate,but what satisfies
on a cold winter night,as day fades
into darkness on the crystalline
prairie.