Ode to a young, just departed friend

Not much solace when a beautiful young friend dies suddenly. Andrea Morrison Baker was kind, loving, smart, had a great sense of humor, and brought grace into the lives of those whose paths she crossed. I am grateful to have known her for nine years. Feel cheated that she left so young: 37. She indeed left sweetness and substance in the world. Today I was astonished to read this poem posted on Patti Digh's blog, 37 Days. The poem says it all: "I love you. It will end." It is cold, but it is solace.

Cold Solace

-Anna Belle Kaufman

When my mother died,
one of her honey cakes remained in the freezer.
I couldn’t bear to see it vanish,
so it waited, pardoned,
in its ice cave behind the metal trays
for two more years.

On my forty-first birthday
I chipped it out,
a rectangular resurrection,
hefted the dead weight in my palm.

Before it thawed,
I sawed, with serrated knife,
the thinnest of slices —
Jewish Eucharist.

The amber squares
with their translucent panes of walnuts
tasted — even toasted — of freezer,
of frost,
a raisined delicacy delivered up
from a deli in the underworld.

I yearned to recall life, not death —
the still body in her pink nightgown on the bed,
how I lay in the shallow cradle of the scattered sheets
after they took it away,
inhaling her scent one last time.

I close my eyes, savor a wafer of
sacred cake on my tongue and
try to taste my mother, to discern
the message she baked in these loaves
when she was too ill to eat them:

I love you.
It will end.
Leave something of sweetness
and substance
in the mouth of the world.

Poem originally found here:
http://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/417/cold_solace


Patti blog is here: http://www.37days.com/2010/09/poetry-wednesday-i-love-you-it-will-end.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+37days+%2837days%29&utm_content=Google+Reader