That’s what her three sons
called her.  Just Ma.

Her kitchen had all the tools deemed
‘collectable’ now, things the young
can hardly name, let alone use.
Slaw slicer, cherry pitter,
Blue two-quart Mason jars.

Her stove was wood, her scarf wool,
her hours steeped in church, and neighbors,
and quilts, and suppers, where, afterward,
they all sat round her table, full.

Yvette Viets Flaten, of Eau Claire, won the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Muse Prize for Excellence in Poetry in 2008 and 2013 and the Wisconsin Writers’ Association’s Jade Ring for poetry in 2010 and 2015. She loves languages, cooking, and travel. For more by and about Yvette here!