LAYERS by Rage Hezekiah

All the lemons lit in the kitchen bowl
seem softened by the sun, whose morning lull

illuminates your hands splayed
open on butcher block table.

Oh, what you can make with your hands,
and how I ache to witness

your wooden spoon mixing six
simple ingredients in a ceramic vessel.

Bake me a cake again. Place squash blossoms
and nasturtiums on the plate,

spread the pastry with sweet cream,
a meditative motion, slow and serene.

Mamma, once you made such gentle things

From Stray Harbor (Finishing Line Press, 2019). Reprinted with permission by the author

Rage Hezekiah is a New England based poet and educator, who earned her MFA from Emerson College. She is  the author of Stray Harbor (Finsihing Line Press, 2019). She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, The MacDowell Colony, and The Ragdale Foundation, and is the recipient of the Saint Botolph Foundation’s Emerging Artists Award. Her poems have been anthologized, co-translated, and published internationally.