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.
Reading to the Core 
Lovely! My tastes came from memories as well! We are living proof of the pathways in our brains that link the two!
LikeLike
(Second try at commenting…WordPress is not cooperating today.)
Lovely! My poem came from memories as well. We are living proof of the connection in our brains between memory and taste!
LikeLike
Oh, yum, I can almost taste those “spirals of sweetness.” Thank you for writing about them and perking up my morning!
LikeLike
You’ve brought a ‘happy’ memory to me, Catherine, those ‘extra’ dough bits, made into shapes of cinnamon goodness. I love that you dreamed it, too!
LikeLike
What a delicious memory! How wonderful that it came to you in a dream!
LikeLike
Mouth-watering poem! Yum!
LikeLike
Cinnamon sugar pie crust tarts are a luxury from my childhood. My mouth is watering. Thanks for these memories, Catherine! The last line of your poem is especially lovely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This image of your grandmother using every last bit of the pie dough is vivid with all the senses. Yummy, indeed!
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing such a special memory, Catherine!
LikeLike
A mouth-watering, happy memory, Catherine!
LikeLike