MiPOesias Magazine

Mairead Byrne

MAIRÉAD BYRNE’s current publications include three chapbooks, An Educated Heart (Palm Press, 2005), Vivas (Wild Honey Press, 2005), and Kalends (Belladonna* 2005); Some Differences Between Poetry & Standup (www.ubu.com); and poems in 5AM, Conduit, The Drunken Boat, Free Verse, and Volt. She teaches poetry at Rhode Island School of Design.

Traditional Pot

When I got married my mother gave me the traditional pot. From that time on everything I cooked was cooked in the traditional pot. I mean everything. The first Christmas was such fun. On “Brides’ Day” in January I met with all the other new brides in the family to tell stories about how we managed Christmas dinner. It was a laugh. Of course my husband that year was an actuary & he had drawn graphs & flow charts, all sorts of mappings & schedules & sequences to cook the mushrooms & turkey & potatoes & stuffing & celery & tomatoes & zucchini & all the trimmings & sauce. It was the very devil trying to keep things hot. And then the mince pies & plum pudding & cake! Thank God for sherry trifle is what I say! It was insane. Not for nothing did us girls breast-feed our babies until they were old enough for school lunches! Well husbands come & go as we know but the traditional pot stays on its sacred burner until the oldest daughter marries & leaves home. For that day believe me I have plans.