JEAN WOOD BLASINGAME
[PART•TIME POET]
Photography & creative image: JWB / Background image credits: Kranich17, _Alicia_via Pixabay
.
My whole family of siblings, in-laws, and kids were having dinner out one evening, when my Mom announced that she was retiring her old flour sifter. Apparently my sister had convinced her that she needed a new one to replace the one she'd used ever since she married my Dad and began housekeeping about 60 years earlier! She was well known in our family for her delicious cakes and cookies, and rightfully proud of the blue ribbon she'd won at the county fair! So Mom, always my biggest fan and encourager, had decided that I should write a poem to commemorate her sifter's retirement. Of course I laughed and brushed it off, thinking it was an unlikely poem topic and maybe she'd forget about it. But by the next morning, a poem had magically made its way into my mind.
The Sifter
She’d done her duty, done it well,
Spun her culinary spell
Retired at last from board and bowl,
A little dingy, squeaky, old
But she sure cranked it in her day...
With mounds of wheat she'd had her way!
Perched on her floured bowl just so
Bright red knob all poised to go
Secure within her kitchen realm
Blue Ribbon Baker at the helm
Five kids appeared to watch the show
Five little heads, ten little hands...
All hoping for a pinch of dough!
“Chi-CHI, Chi-CHI,” she told the flour
It seemed she had some magic power
Whatever in her sieve was thrust
She sifted into fairy dust
And in good time that "dust" would make
Mom’s "magic" cookies, pies, and cake
And sometimes, if we asked real nice
We’d get to spin her once or twice
To watch with glee as flour flew high
Before becoming cake or pie
How little did we know back then
As we idly watched her spin
That she was just a metaphor
To show us Life is little more
Than taking what things Fate may plan
Putting them in Expert Hands
Picking recipes we trust
Adjusting when and if we must
Cranking steady...that’s our part
Knowing when to stop, or start
Refining life with faith to make
Raw grain into Blue Ribbon cake
JWB ~ 2008
With thanks to our Blue Ribbon Baker, Mom, and her original 1950’s model sifter for all the cakes, pies, cookies, lessons & love