When to Flip the Pancakes
By Elizabeth Boquet
While I make a fat stack of pancakes, my son
throws his little arms around my thighs and asks,
Where did Mittens go when she died?
I lift him to my left hip. We hold each other close
as I ladle more batter onto the buttered pan.
We watch and wait in silence, missing the cat,
until backward bubbles pock across the tops,
tiny signs signaling the time has come
to flip the pancakes. I hand him the spatula
and nod. He has to twist his whole arm but
accomplishes it first flip and whispers, Good thing
the other side is golden, and I hope he’s right.
Elizabeth Boquet is author of Galoshes (2020). Naomi Shihab Nye granted her a Geneva Writers’ Literary Prize in 2017, and her poetry has been featured on Billy Collins’ Poetry Broadcast and in various literary journals. She teaches English, translates FR-EN, and chairs the Pernessy Poets in Lausanne, Switzerland, and in Pézenas, France. www.elizabethboquet.com