Elizabeth Alford

Heaven is My Mother’s Apple Pie

Once a year
(and only under the best
possible circumstances)
my mother makes
her apple pie, and that first
bite—oh! how buttery
and crumbly the crust, how
spicy the forbidden fruit
filling still warm from the oven
and swirls of cinnamon,
sweet and tang waltzing to flavor
on the ballroom floor
of my tongue—is almost enough
to make me sing praise
to a god I don’t believe in,
even though I know
deep in my heart
and in my stomach
that if there is an afterlife,
it is after Thanksgiving dinner
and that my mother
is a god of gods
who can bake the whole
of the universe
into a pie.

Elizabeth Alford (Hayward, CA) is a voracious carbnivore who has also been known to eat her own words. See more of her work @ Facebook.com/ElizabethAlfordPoetry