Strange now, making marshmallows

Had not done that for many years

but this year did feel apt to send

some kind of yielding sweetness off across the chilly miles

Who knows if any of us now will meet again

Pandemic pulsing out anew

A monstrous, vicious, soulless war that may turn nuclear

Climate crisis — fires, floods — new manifest each dawn

Weather warnings! click-here alerts the morning (mourning) norm

Plus simple, dull, quotidian surprise of looming death

As ever, cannot know who will die next

Younger often struck down first, by cruel surprise

Child before parent, healthy before sick, glad before sad

(and good before bad, good before bad, good before bad)

Though — purest nonsense, all these endless vaunted shocks . . .

should never be surprised by simple shiny fact of death

And so, marshmallows! soft and light and very mail-box-friendly

keep well unchilled, easy to wrap up, to pack, to send

to self-congratulate for kindly, well-considered choice.

Bit hard, these days, assembling the needed elements

but technique comes back quick enough, despite six years

Familiar boiling amber syrup climbing up up up in measured heat

So fast at first, then last ten crucial increments creep ultra slow

The stream of dark clear high-heat liquid, still a-bubble

Tipped thin and smooth into the spinning giddy metal bowl

Entering the vortex jelly there

Whip whipping wild as dark mix lightens, whitens,

foams and froths and magic swells

Grows great at last, a downy ivory pillow waiting to be plumped

Soothed, nestled down inside its proper, gleaming, waiting bed,

bright silver berth smoothed sweet with golden oil

And then . . .you wait, long as you can stand it

makes it better, so they say — ten hours, twelve, or twenty

Countdown 'til readiness arrives, time to face the final steps. . .

***

Softness - Part 2 follows