Des(s)erted by Dana Kinsey

Apron pressed to granite,

she calls Siri for a song,

and Ella moves her to rolling pin, pie pan,

stained card in an old hand.

Heavy cloth bag of green apples.

Humming “How About Me?” she skims

the polished wooden floor,

gathers spoons and spices.

Reaches through the window,

pulls shutters tight

as lightning cracks.

She harmonizes, sugar

into flour, milk into

butter, music into mood, swings

hips, kneads, presses dough

into heirloom dish, flat-bottom boat

docked and ready. Pares green

from white, seed from sweet flesh.

Slender moons crest from the dish.

She reaches for cinnamon, sugar,

blanket of dough to keep them warm.

In evening light, time deepens

the sweet. He opens the door to aroma.

Upstairs under the comforter

she hums, warms. Dreams a glimmer

of Granny Smith green,

whole again on the bough.

---

Dana Kinsey is a writer, actor, and teacher with poetry published by Writers Resist, One Art, Broadkill Review, For Women Who Roar’s 2020 Anthology, Spillwords, Fledgling Rag, Greatest City Collective, Silver Needle Press, Porcupine Literary. Her prose appears in Teaching Theatre and Tweetspeak. Dana's play, WaterRise, was produced at the Gene Frankel Theatre in Greenwich Village. Visit www.wordsbyDK.com, Twitter @wordsbyDK, or Instagram @dana.kinsey.