Frosting

Frosting 1-30-94


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtmMredXKuo

As when three leaves left the tree
I stood up naked in the window
watching the heated summer day
fall to the ground.
I stood there a moment
left cold in shortened breath
contemplating the arrival
of a winters chill, forestalled
simply by getting dressed.

I imagined you here
and baked a cake
at the thought of you.

Still in the midst of winter,
a naked man stands in the window
reflecting the new fallen snow
just like icing,
white as a wedding cake
cooling on the counter.
A warm sweet fresh baked aroma
permeates my apartment
as I get dressed again.

Authors Note:
Frosting is about Autumn changing to Winter, keeping warm, and my recurring thoughts of a spouse while baking cakes.

About the naked part... I wake up, bake a cake, make frosting, take a shower when the cake is cooling, I walk past my chest high window on the way out of the shower and check the weather outside. In the winter, when I bake the most cakes, this is cold, and a new snow on the trees is beautiful.

I left the first word "As" out of the video. The introduction of the ingredients didn't transition well to the reading of the poem. "As" was kind of abrupt. "When" is smoother, like the frosting.

This depression era frosting goes best with angel food cake, in my opinion. Graham crackers is a close second. Sometimes after frosting a cake, the leftovers wind up on grahm crackers.

7 Minute Frosting
1/4 cup Butter (Not Margarine or Vegetable Spread! Use Real Butter!)
1 Egg
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Cold Water (Ice water without the Ice works best.)
1/4 Cup Flour 1 lb. Powdered Sugar

Cream first 5 ingredients.
Add the flour and powdered sugar.
Beat for 7 minutes on high.

Baker's Tips:
The part about the ice water without the ice, I fill a large cup with ice and the measuring cup with ice. I wait until the ice melts enough to make 1/4 cup. Empty the ice from the measuring cup and measure the water from the large cup. Ice water works best because it keeps the butter from melting. You don't want the butter to melt.

You don't want to use room temperature butter. I use butter when it has been out of the fridge for about 10 to 20 minutes. Not room temperature, not straight out of the fridge, somewhere in-between, but more on the cold side. Well chilled butter helps keep the frosting creamy.

Try adding the first cup of the powder ingredients about 1/4 cups at a time to get things going. Then add the rest about a cup at a time until the powder is blended in just to keep the powder spray down. Once everything is in the bowl, blend it for about 7 minutes.

If the weather is hot it is best to refrigerate the frosted cake. The egg and butter are dairy products and they do get melty after a while. A thin crunchy skin develops on the frosting after about a day in the fridge. Tasty.

Consecration of an Angel

Consecration of an Angel 3-18-94

Anointed on gold immaculate.
Robed in velvet red.
This crimson scarlet guardian.
Of wings majestic, chatoyant adornments.
Wafting on the premonition of death.
His sentient gesture of solace in the breeze
waits with empathetic sadness.
He must know what is to come.
You can see it in his eyes.
There is no other tranquility
for his mere hands,
his trusting arms folded open
propending to comfort the gentle soul of this
child
about to come unto him.
Suffer not my beloved.
Blessed you are safe.
I will show you the way.
The consecration of an angel.

New Years Day

New Years Day 1-1-94 / 2:00am

In the still chill of the cemetery
as a full moon wanes in the fourth day
my composure fades.
Sometimes I wonder which way he's looking.
His broken young bones laying there
Earth to Earth, our little angel.
Sometimes I wish I was God
Suffer the little children
to come unto me
and forbid them not.
At times I wish he had some
grandiose delusion -
said that he was Jesus or something
that some day he'd come back
to life,
and the joke would be over.
Sometimes I just pray
and kiss his grave crying.

Angel Bones

Angel Bones 6-14-93 / 1:15am

Thought: Grieving over the loss of a brother. It was about eighty degrees, the sun was shining and a slight rain was coming down. Slight enough that the driveway stayed dry but enough that you could smell it from the kitchen table and hear it in the trees.

Remnants of a fallen angel
where ever they may settle
find a way
to brush the dust from my soul.

I stumbled upon them
in the slumber of my dreams
browsing through boxed memories
unearthed from the feeling field.

Angel bones
parched white in the sun
blinded my eyes with tears
flooding my soul with relief.

Thought: Have you ever lost a sibling in your youth? Have you ever stashed away in the attic, in a box, the personal belongings? Have you ever forgotten about that box? Have you ever looked through that box? Have you ever decorated your home with its contents?