Kaeli loved to cook. When she was very young, Kaeli would help her grandma and grandpa with cooking. Like her grandmother, she was an intuitively good cook. Frequently, she would invent her own dishes without relying on written recipes. She loved cooking with and for her friends. I remember our kitchen filled with the laughter and talk of teenagers on a Sunday morning after a sleepover. Sometimes, Kaeli would make a giant puffed pancake for her guests or bowls of steamy carrot soup. Often, the girls would come down with trays of food for Peter and me as well.
The kitchen was Kaeli’s domain. For dinner she would prepare homemade veggie burgers, delicious soups, or her vegan mac and cheese. For her Aunt Dee’s birthday she made a souffle cake that took hours to prepare! Sundance always enjoyed a freshly baked carrot cake with carrot candles on his birthday too!
Vegetarian cooking was her passion and solace. After a difficult day at school she retreated to her room transforming her anger and frustration with the days events into this poem. With her gentle smile, she handed me what she had written.
CRAVES
By Kaeli Kramer
A cake full of feelings
Is the story I will tell
I made it all, and by myself,
Because this has been the day from hell.
A little flustered flour,
Some sugar full of guilt,
Two eggs cracked in of loneliness
Composes the confection that I built
As I whisked it all together, some vanilla I just threw in,
When I actually discovered
That tears were flowing in!
No sooner had I cleaned up this mess
Did I ice it with loathing anger,
Covering all my scruples with such sweet sin.
Until it, I devoured