Tiramisu Wedding Cake
by Kathy Skaggs (a really wonderful Kentucky? poet who is a friend of the professor's)
We called him nathan
the Old Testament name for gift
patiently slicing each layer of wedding cake into thirds
our family's best gift to the future.
Her father named her Vrushali
wife of Vedic Lord Karna
grating organic semi-sweet chocolate he tells us
"I found the recipe on the internet and Nathan does the rest."
And here they are
and here we are
manicured pedicured starched pressed
peeled layered laminated
fluffed and blow-dried.
A wedding cake awaits us
assembled through one hundred and four painstaking steps
from cream cheese Kahlua espresso
whipping cream chocolate fresh berries
and much much more.
We celebrate their wedding
in Sanskrit and English
with Beethoven punch and wine
poetry promises candles and flowers
mingled with our joy
and the most elaborate wedding cake
the world has ever seen.
We have driven and flown here
from New Jersey Florida and Texas
India Russia and central Kentucky
cross country across town across the state and around the world
from southern hillsides downtown streets and suburban cul-de-sacs
a community assembled
as painstakingly as a tiramisu wedding cake.
We have given them sheets and food processors
cards flowers hugs
good wishes and a crystal punch bowl
but these are not the real gifts.
The real gifts began before today
and continue long after the honeymoon.
We have given them history and hope
advice and comfort
we have lent them our money our ear and our truck
we have laughed with them and cried with them.
Today is just a symbol a moment
today we will rejoice we'll laugh and dance
and disassemble wedding cake.
Tomorrow the real work begins
the real gift of friendship and marriage continues
as we depart to our homes and our workplaces
to math conferences and Al-Anon meetings
unpacking and repacking and working off wedding cake
we take this responsibility with us:
It takes a whole community to support a marriage.
(from The Poet Laureate of People Who Hate Poetry - by Kathy Skaggs, Time Barn Books, Nashville, 2007).
1 comment:
yeah. dope.
Post a Comment