THE SMALLER THE PIE PLATE THE BETTER

 

THE SMALLER THE PIE PLATE THE BETTER

That’s poetry, but still true in my kitchen.

The 9-inch pie plate is where I live.

Guys like me were not meant to build

around the 10-inch plate

with its promise of abundance.

And this piece of advice:

There’s always one pie plate

from our mothers

that never goes home

with guests. It never holds

a pie you’re taking to a memorial

or wedding. It doesn’t

leave the house.

My wife watches..

Her eyes are on me. She

doesn’t love me enough

to trust me with this pie plate.

This is the way things are--

Don’t drop it, I say to myself

bringing it out from the cupboard.

The 9-inch pie plate

offers the world where bees

thrive and birds feed.

The gleaned apple orchard itself

wants these glass plates.

They can hold the fruit.

They’re hardy, inexpensive,

simple glass plates,

heat-resistant, challenging

you to produce sabor

from the butter crust--challenging

your skills of pinch, fold, flute.

The 9-inch plate makes it easier,

forgives your arthritic fingers.

It binds top and bottom.

And then, there are smaller

pie plates too. Like pie plates

for children. These small ones

take left-over filling, They’re cute.

Some of the children’s ware

can produce pies cut into 8

one-bite pieces.

They take me to that happy place

where no one looks over shoulders,

and only person’s allowed in the kitchen.

The beloved wants the child’s plate,

with Bambi and roses hiding

under the butter crust.

Coming from the oven,

this pie plate’s unassuming.

This pie, though, brushed

with egg wash, sprinkled

with turbinado sugar, arrives

coarse and sparkling.

Jim Bodeen

13 November 2026