Christmas Cookies
This baking is taking
the fruit of some body
and mixing it with the fruit
of the earth, birthing
harmony in each small cookie,
Mary’s sowing, reaping, crushing, sifting,
the cow with milk to give, hen with eggs to fold in,
substance of life and life-giving blending.
Isn’t this season about celebrating
the melding of spirit
with flesh? Remember
our miracles blossom from trauma
and this baking is beating
ingredients, dividing
dough in heaping spoonfuls,
elements indivisible – egg and sugar,
wheat and water.
Bite in, lick the crumb from your upper lip…
Partake in this communion of saints
while the miracle still warms the wafer.
And now we are all here: laborer,
consumer, life-giver, hovering over a tray
of peace on Earth.
I’m not sold on the ending. I’m not sold on the whole poem, even, but I needed to write about this. I was baking cookies and thinking about baking cookies, so a poem needed to be born. Hope you enjoy your cookies this holiday.
Sarah Marie Wells 