Like sparkling lights
I love you
like tart cranberry sauce
and chocolate mousse
smooth and sweet
and roast turkey
the day of and days after
and after that’s leftovers
like youthful kisses
I love those leftovers too
the you and me
season after season,
still savory good.


Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets where today Sarah asks us to write a response to a poem we’ve read in the past year. Below is the poem I modeled mine after. It appears in jelly roll, a collection of poems by African American poet Kevin Young, winner of the Patterson Poetry Prize and Finalist for the National Book Award. I tried to simulate his form and like him, used a type of music as the title. And yes, that’s my husband and I fifty years ago and obviously, much more recently!
Ragtime
by Kevin Young
Like hot food
I love you
like warm
bread & cold
cuts, butter
sammiches
or, days later, after
Thanksgiving
when I want
whatever’s left