Chew the cranberry skin to keep from gnawing nails and cheek. When the grief of two mothers could fill three refrigerators, there is no room for yours, you must keep your fingers out of the way to chop Brussels sprouts, shred potatoes. You will not even pretend to wince at the nicked skin along the grater edge because the gravy is bubbling over again and someone has to lower the heat. There is a meal to be made while the usual chef sits in the hospital, eyeing the drip drip drips of the IV until her father gets up and forgets where he is and starts trying to tear out his tubes. But that is not your job, you get it easy, you only have to stir the cornbread batter, spoon the stuffing, fill the pie crust to the brim.
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Sophie Panzer is the author of the chapbooks Bone Church (dancing girl press, 2020), Mothers of the Apocalypse (Ethel Press, 2019) and Survive July (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2019). She has received support for her writing from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and the Quebec Writers Federation. Her work has appeared in Threadcount Magazine, Menacing Hedge, HOOT Review, Coffin Bell Journal, The Hellebore, and others. She lives in Philadelphia.