thoughts

with my firstborn, 1980, Kansas City

A mother's love for her child 

is like nothing else in the world.

It knows no law, no pity, 

it dates all things 

and crushes down remorselessly 

all that stands in its path. 

Agatha Christie, The Last Seance

apron

Smoldering Fires, Clarence Holbrook Carter, 1904-2000
Columbus Museum of Art

Apron

      for Alice Pullen Hanna, 1914-1970



I sleep burrowed in gingham,
a cabbage roll swallowed

in a mix of stove grease
and her own warm

uncorseted scent,
unspoken balm,

quiet like the still
before a Dog Day storm.

Church hymns spoon
heat in the summer kitchen

and Hoosier light,
savory from the night sun,

shines from the back door
out through the front.



Tess Kincaid
May, 2011

charming gardeners

Let us be grateful to people

who make us happy,

they are the charming gardeners

who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you,

I could walk forever in my garden. ~Claudia Ghandi

My little gardeners and me, November 4, 1986