"fruitcake" | Christmas Poetry Collection: Poem 2

Early this morning, I prepare to bake 
Grandma’s flavorful fruitcake
The recipe, handwritten many decades ago
Stained and frail is the paper I read it from 
Passed down from generation to generation
It now lies on the granite counter next to the baking powder
Her red nail traced a line underneath each instruction every

year we baked together in her pale yellow kitchen

I was tasked with placing every ingredient in front of her
while she busied herself with grating fresh ginger
Grandma would have a bowl wrapped with plastic
In it was apples, raisins, peaches, cherries, black figs
smothered in a liquid with a pungent scent I

didn’t quite understand
Of course, now I know it was brandy
“Now combine the dry ingredients,” she would tell me
which included flour, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon
Grandma bought the cake pan I now pour the batter in
Eighty minutes later I take the fruitcake out of the oven
and it’s as if I am eleven, baking with Grandma in her
pale yellow kitchen again

JB

about the poem

Poetry is a wonderful way to express your emotions in the form of art. But, it's also a fun way to write a fictional story in an abstract and creative way! I wanted to write a variety of poems this Christmas, including this fictional one of a girl who reflects on the memories of her and her grandmother baking a generational fruitcake recipe. I really liked how it turned out!

Also, this poem's font is a little smaller to help keep its structure. 

Happy Holidays x

Jana Blignault © All rights reserved