From Time to Time

I recommend sitting on an old stone fence
from time to time
especially if you can sit high enough
to easily swing your legs
like you once did at the kitchen table
all those years ago
when your mother made you eat liver
with peppers and onions

Recognize what a comfort it was for her
to make the food her mother made
when she was small enough
to kick her legs beneath
the polished walnut table
that cost three months of her father's
steel mill worker salary

Imagine how tall your papa sat
at the head of his very own table
just one generation removed from the old country
and yet able to see his three small children
well fed and happy

Picture the glint in his eyes
as he admonished them to clean their plates
so they could all go watch a show
on the brand new television

No one had ever eaten liver and peppers so fast

Forgive yourself for turning up your nose
at your mother's simple offering
for declaring the sacred profane

And though you have been a vegetarian
for some twenty years
go back in your memory
slice a small strip
of the dense pungent meat
savor it with the gratitude
that while your mom's feet now easily touch the ground
she still likes to swing them a little
from time to time