The rich Christmas mix listens with all of its ingredients.
"Ahhhh but as love gets older sure love gets colder. . ."
the brandy & fruit weep into the bowl
"...and fades away like the morning dew."
There is a lot of brandy in the mix. There is a lot of brandy in sis.
Sad Irish folk songs appear to be
the essential ingredient.
A pink and green balloon clings to the ceiling
refusing to come down by poker or by broom.
Takes refuge in the corner just above the Christmas star.
My heart is breaking with baking.
"I know my love by his way of talking..."
flour in her hair making her so ghostly
as if the original protagonist came back from the grave
and sang her heart out
". ..and I know my love by his eyes so blue..."
until the creambuttersugar is all fluffy.
He voice adding a zing of lemon peel.
At this stage the eegs are beaten
". . .and if my love leaves me what will I do?"
Slowly slowly whipped to form peaks.
Now the cake is tipsy. So - is sis.
I am drunk on her singing.
My mind is in mourning for all the love loved
and lost.
She daubs my nose and laughs. I lick it off.
The tip of my tongue a windscreen wiper!
And so the brandy fruit mixture is folded in.
I can still taste her singing.
Her cake the only cake I could ever ate and oh
her almond icing!
These songs forever her.
And still she sings down all the years
and I love her versions the best!
"...and a troubled mind sure can know no rest
and still she cries bonny boys are few
and if my love leaves me what will I do!"
*
Ahhh it's such an elemental memory for me...I can at a second's notice step back into it in an instant. I'd bawl my eyes out....the words....the melody....everything was real to me.
Couldn't possibly forget these songs and the singer...they stained my soul. She used to sing them very quietly and so soft and tender....even today they haven't been surpassed...they used to **** me. And when she got to the bit where "...he takes a strange ******* his knee and he tells her things that he once told me..." it was all much too much! I thought they were exquisite!
Her voice and that moment tied to her apron strings lives forever in my mind. It is a little jewel of time that has never diminished ever. I was too young to understand the brandy factor and could never understand how other people's cake and almond icing just couldn't get next or near to my sister's!
My big sister hated my poetry and said "You can't be writing poetry 'cos you are my brother!" i pointed out that a certain Mr. Cohen had a sister and that didn't stop him( not that I was comparing myself to Lenny). Whenever anybody else liked it she was furious and couldn't understand why for heaven's sake. Nevertheless when I wrote about this little moment she changed her tune and was thrilled to be remembered in such a touching moment.