An Embarrassment of Riches
Fullness
We sit outdoors
on a delicious warm
shortcake of a July evening
on the back deck, the deck’s
arms not long enough
to hold us all without crowding
shoulder to shoulder
knee to knee
at the glass-top table
but do we care?
We do not.
We are together!
Together
around baking done earlier
in joyous anticipation
of these exact moments
of scooping scores of
deep-red sliced strawberries
over biscuits burrowed
in bright white bowls
each of us thwacking thick
billows of whipped cream
into place as breezes
kiss our skin,
light-hearted laughter
fills the air like
evening birdsong, and
sweet juice stains our lips.
Meg’s bowl is
gloriously
unabashedly
overflowing
and she does not hesitate
to refill it.
Twice.
Later when I spoon leftovers
into Tupperware
I watch my hands
hide the remaining
whipped cream
in a dark covert corner
of the fridge’s crisper drawer
so Meg won’t find it
and indulge
in a midnight snack
leaving me bereft
of whipped cream
when she drives
from Massachusetts
back home to Virginia tomorrow.
I hesitate,
feel a bee-sting of shame
at my hoarding.
But. Oh.
Now I see
I was thinking I could keep
Meg here wanting more
the way I want more,
more us together.
So hard for me
this bereavement.
Even softened
with a dollop
of cream.
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3 x 3″; watercolor and colored pencil on paper
card #4 to Caroline at camp
2025
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Notes about poem and art:
• “Fullness” was sparked by a poetry class I started in July offered by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer whose work I admire tremendously. In class, participants read and discussed poet Linda Pastan’s poem “Self-Portrait” after which we were offered two prompts, neither of which I followed. Instead, when I thought “self-portrait” on that day in that setting, this is what flowed out of me. I then went on to revise my drafted ideas following suggestions from a course I took earlier in the summer offered by poet Douglas Kearney.
• I know, I know, why do I have An Embarrassment and not my strawberry painting paired with “Fullness”?! Well, the strawberry painting predated the zucchini painting and had already taken on a life of its own. But, when I think of the embarrassment of riches provided by the zucchini plants in our garden, and the embarrassment of riches embedded in “Fullness,” I think they make a well-suited pairing!
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8 responses to “An Embarrassment of Riches”
Carol, thanks for reveling in the strawberries and whipped cream with us! Such deliciousness! Such camaraderie!
Looking at my greens again—I’m quite pleased with them, and I thank you for noticing them.
I jot down NO color combinations! My approach with these engaging color-mixing-color-matching exercises is entirely otherwise: in the moment, hand and eye working/playing together, intuitive, hit or miss, pure pleasure, and then on to the next color.
I can so relate to your poem Dotty…strawberry shortcake with homegrown strawberries and homemade biscuits and whipped cream was such a part of my growing up. My mom had a special large crystal bowl that always held the bounty of the strawberries.
I’ve also felt that joy of the house…or yard filled with loved ones and that feeling of bereavement when they have to go. And if I’m honest I’ve also tucked some little bite of something special deep in the fridge. Fullness…was a perfect title.
And every vegetable gardener understands the embarrassment of riches when it comes to zucchini. A good pairing indeed!
Is there anything better than strawberry shortcake and togetherness?!
Such a joy filled poem, Dotty. I can smell the berries, hear the laughter, and the tinkling of spoons on bowls. ;o)
I think the zucchini is perfect! And so are you earthy textured patches.
One of my favorite dishes is the calabacitas (zucchini) my grandmother would make at the holidays. We ate them all year long, but the holidays would not be the same without them. I made them for friends once, and she has been making them regularly for years now. Haha.
It is an easy dish, and you can add to it. You can even make it creamy with cheese. Just zucchini, onion, corn and garlic. Riches for my stomach! Haha ;o)
Strawberry shortcake and togetherness, can’t beat it for a summer recipe, especially if calabacitas is the main dish for dinner! Love that “Fullness” transmitted all its sensory information to you : )
Thank you for sharing memories from your own family times of togetherness, with your grandmother’s recipe “making” many holidays.
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Lola, dear friend, thank you. You heard what I had to say. holy holy holy. xo
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