Warm chocolate pastries
all night they rested in the cold oven
frozen rectangles on the verge of freezer burn
lay quietly on parchment paper
over the course of the required nine hours
while I slept
they defrosted, rose and grew
to almost 4 times their frozen size!
In that early morning wakefulness,
I stumble into the kitchen to turn the oven on
memory served me and I wanted to get a head start
The oven light clicked on and they began
the final leg of their journey
into fullness, their greatest potential
becoming a reality in my toasty oven
the white pastry dough
became golden like the rising sun
and their baked delight
swam into the air and nestled
into every nook and corner of our walls
If I closed my eyes tight enough,
I could imagine being in my very own bakery
The timer dinged and the baked chocolatey,
ooey-gooey goodness rested on the stove
until it was safe enough to handle
and then they were promptly devoured
by my daughter as she read her fiction book,
crunching the flaky crust
The smell lingered on
long after the chocolate croissants
were devoured and gone
Tag: bakery
The old bakery
We walked everywhere as kids. Mom didn’t drive so our options were limited. We walked up and down the busy at times streets. Cars whizzed by. The blaring sirens of firetrucks and ambulances. The familiar thud as car tires ran over a dipped manhole cover. I don’t remember why we were in Wescott. There was no bus route or a friend’s house to visit. Then I discovered a bakery. I could smell the fresh loaves of bread long before we crossed the threshold. My stomach growled, wanting to gobble the aroma that danced and swirled around my nostrils. Did we go in? Did we buy a prized loaf? I don’t remember eating the fresh bread, just the aromas lingering as we walked by. A secret bakery, no longer hidden from our path. Sweet, fresh, warm, beckoning us all inside for a bit a reprieve from the walking, how our legs would sometimes ache. And our stomachs’ noise matched our longing. A childhood memory, forever etched in my mind of a long gone bakery of decades past.
Healing Insights 