No Matter How Many Times

(from the NaPoWriMo prompt: write a poem about a handmade or homemade gift that you have received.)

When she realized the cancer

was inoperable,

she decided to copy the notes

from her cookbooks

into copies for each one

of her children.

My copy of The Complete

Asian Cookbook by

Charmaine Solomon

is wonderful to have,

but the abrupt scratches of a

quick hand running from death on

page 223—Ayam Goreng Asam/

Piquant Fried Chicken—

is shocking no matter how

many times I make it.