To Christopher Morley In Heaven At The Feasts

Dear Mr. Morley Wherever You Are Now
thanks to the scrumptiousness of your prose
I have ordered your Mince Pie and Plum Pudding

instead of mere groceries.
Indeed, because of you I almost grow thinner
except that this never happens no matter

what diet I don't go on.
which proves to me that words are indeed fattening
or how else can my face still be pumpkin

round, glowing even.
I am glad you don't seem to have written
any other books such as perhaps Chocolate Fudge Cake

With Raspberry Sauce;

Asparagus Drowned in Creamery Butter
or Receipts of the Lost, The Dessert Filled Kingdoms
say of New York or the tram bright neighborhoods

of Philadelphia.
Cream Cheese?, your muses ask, a little beseechingly
as I write on...Mint Jelly?

mary angela douglas 13 april 2016