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At My Mother's Table

On an ecru, gold-trimmed Bone China dinner plate sits


    a fine cut of steak

      oven-broiled to my taste

      flecked with a hand-made mixture of seasonings

      generous width of soft, translucent fat on the longest side


    a baked Idaho potato, looking pretty in its tin foil jacket, 

      ready for a parade dress of butter and sour cream.

 

   four asparagus stalks

      sautéed in a buttery pan

      texture will demand a knife

      crunches upon consumption.

 

On a matching salad plate rests

 

    a simple tossed salad

      torn by hand, leaves of Iceberg lettuce

      two slices of one large Beefsteak tomato

        streams of reddened juice transport seeds away from their source

      three cucumber pinwheels adorn the leafy bedding like crowns

   

  dollops of homemade dressing,

      a marriage of mayo, ketchup, and pickle relish, cast about.

 

Settling down at my place at the table,

    a linen napkin on my lap,

      I taste her love.

Suzanne S. Austin-Hill (she/her) is an internationally recognized mathematics educator, wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She lives in house built on what used to be a thriving tomato farm in Ruskin, a crowded suburb of Tampa, FL. Suzanne earned four college degrees, three in Mathematics Education and one in Sign Language Interpretation. Over a decade retired, she has successfully eased the transition from technical endeavors to more soulful forms of expression as an author and poet. Her pieces have appeared in Lifestyles AFTER 50, Deaf Devos, The Tampa Bay Times, and The Washington Post. She was a contributing author in the anthology, TattleTALES and Shade in the Sunshine State Reflections on Segregation in Florida, Vol.1. Suzanne has penned hundreds of poems; many recognized on the local, state, and national levels. She is particularly proud of the poems published by 805 Lit + Art, Newtown Literary, Lucky Jefferson, O Miami, the Sandhill Review, and the Florida State Poets Association. Her book of poetry, Sixty-seven pages from the Heart, is available at amazon.com.

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