Toni Morrison, Julia Child

Poem of the Day:
"Creationism" by Major Jackson
Holding Company

Today I found Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon" among our cookbooks. I didn't know that Morrison was a chef, or that "Song of Solomon" was something edible (dear me, what would this even taste like?).

For me, the close of Jackson's poem calls forth another of Morrison's novels, "Beloved."


Creationism

I gave the bathtub purity and honor, and the sky
noctilucent clouds, and the kingfisher his implacable
devotees. I gave salt & pepper the table, and the fist
its wish for bloom, and the net, knotholes of emptiness.
I gave the loaf its slope of integrity, the countertop
belief in the horizon, and mud its defeated boots.
I gave morning triumphant songs which consume my pen,
and death its grief which is like a midsummer thunderclap.
But I did not give her my tomblike woe though it trembled
from my white bones and shook the walls of our home.


God. I can't stop thinking about a Morrison cookbook: "Vengeful Daughter Vegetable Roast" and "Ugly Pecola Pineapple Bake."


Sincerely,
A Poem A Day Audrey