This month, Linda prompted the Inkings to respond to Ethical ELA’s September Open Write by Kelsey Bigelow: “What is the happiest thing you’ve ever tasted?”

I thought long and hard about this prompt. My family is full of excellent cooks, and I love bake. I know what foods I adore, which recipes of mine that people love. But the happiest? I was stumped. Then, as often happens, this memory came to be in a dream.

Pinwheels

Before she crimped the edges of her pies, 
Grandma ran a knife around the rim 
of the pie plate,
trimming the extra crust.

Expertly, she rerolled the scraps,
cut them into triangles.
Then, like a snow flurry, 
soft and silent, 
she coated the waiting dough 
with cinnamon and sugar.

She scooped raisins out of a box,
scattered them over each one,
topped it all with a dollop of butter,
and rolled the pastry into crescents, 
sealing all that savory goodness inside.

Soon the air was filled with a heavenly
aroma, and I could hardly wait to
feast on those spirals of sweetness.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2025

Please visit my fellow Inklings to see what they’ve cooked up this month:

Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading
Linda Mitchell @ A Word Edgewise
Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret Simon @ Reflections on the Teche
Heidi Mordhorst @ my juicy little universe

Then stop by Laura Purdie Salas’s blog for the Poetry Friday Roundup.