Another Installment in the Series of Poems about Fall 2005

September 19, 2005
Weekend

Saturday morning was the farmer’s market
bought fruit to make little pot pies for Vanessa’s dessert party
Three different kinds of heirloom apples from the apple stand
tiny hard green ones from england
the golden delicious the french use for tart tatin
and dear pink-red ones called jonathan
Also some green and some red plums
And a few of the first pomegranates of the season and more dahlias
which I put in a jug on the dining table
so I can sit and watch them like waves on the shore

That afternoon we baked the pies in the small pink ramekins
Bill made pastry dough
I chopped up all the apples and plums
The pastry lids were sprinkled with sugar
and slashed on top three times with a knife
The filling ran down the sides as they baked
We watched bad movies in bed while the dough was chilling
and the pies baking

In the middle of the movie
prompted by nothing
Bill started crying
really cried for the first time since the school year began
I held him

On Sunday there was all the housework
And a somewhat heavy going brunch with friends at Dottie’s
(where I saw a girl in a lavender wig drinking out of a lavender water glass)
Sometimes it takes more will
to make sunny breakfast table chitchat
than it does to do the laundry and the dishes
sweep the house
clean the bathroom
go to the grocery store and balance the checkbook
No one can claim to like cleaning the bathroom
(especially if you have old porcelain
that soaks up dirt and never really gives it back)
But in the end
the sparkling white and deep mellow silver
smile and wink at you
I do like to go to the grocery store though
pretending to be an adult
with my flour and my carrots and my grapenuts and my bottle of wine
Sometimes I think I’m playing house