Cottage Cooking

Ed Ahern

My mother's mother cooked from scratch:
chicken dumplings and gravy,
fresh-caught, bacon grease fried perch,
just picked strawberries and real shortcake.
Three quarters of a century later
I salivate at the sense memories.

Having repeatedly tried and failed to find
a home cook or restaurant able to
duplicate these taste sensations,
let alone the smell of lavender
and brisk advice about behavior,
I savor within my memories

---

Ed Ahern
Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had over 600 stories and poems published so far, and twelve books. Ed works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories where he squats on the review board, and at Scribes Micro where he is the idle figurehead.