I never liked cornbread,
those sticks my mother baked
in the cast-iron molded pan,
a black pan with six
indentations like perfectly
shaped and aligned graves. Then
my grandmother showed me
how to truly eat cornbread,
baked in a cake pan, extra sugar
in the batter and finished (hot)
with butter and syrup,
pronounced sirp.
This is another in a series of poems about growing up in the South (yes, I know a lot of them are about food, but that’s better than shooting cats). The series was suggested by my friend Nancy Rosback at A Little Somethin’. She sort of grew up in the South – Southern Illinois.
This is poem is also being submitted for Open Link Night at dVerse Poets. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today.
Photograph courtesy of Anson Mills.
12 comments:
And honey ... lots of honey. Yum!
Ahh . . . cornbread! I can taste it. :)
I love cornbread! This poem is like smelling hot cornbread from the oven...yummy!
Ooo...thanks for the yummy reminder. Haven't had any in a while. Loved this! Too fun! Great memories!
Excellent image of the molded pan's indentations like graves.
There is cornbread. . . and then there is cornbread that melts in your mouth, no butter or syrup needed.
My father-in-law gets a glass of milk, adds sugar and crumbles the cornbread into the glass. He calls it "crumble-in".
Me? Mexican cornbread. Add cheddar cheese, jalapenos and corn. Yum.
mmm...you got my mouth watering for some good back home southern cooking glynn....and its almost dinner time...
That is the way cornbread should be eaten, with red beans chili powder too. But the butter and the syrup are the best part, like eating dessert right alongside your meal. My mom made the best cornbread, and that's where I learned how to appreciate it. One of my homeless friends taught me how to cook it in a skillet. That was mighty tasty. Have you trued cornbread pudfing, Jamaican style? Great stuff. Now what a fine poem you've written here, bringing all of this back to life again in me. Excellent!
Terrific pictures here, the experience leavened with just the right amount of nostalgia. Nice work.
There's something here...I think it's in the voice...
Good reading.
oh, this is very tasty.
i am truly loving these.
still loving these
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