Who Cooks For You?

Barred Owl, Cary, North Carolina – 1 Oct 2012

Today was shopping. My main goal was making myself walk into the Nahunta Pork Outlet at the Raleigh Farmers Market for seasoning meat. Making collards or butter beans, it’s important. And all the bacon I’d stashed in the freezer, post widower disastrous checkup lab results, was used up. Only country ham trimmings will do and they are external to corporate grocery supply chains.

On a Thursday afternoon, in February, parking is plentiful and half the vendor stalls are empty. Collards and scallions are plentiful, especially when cooking for one. That was the hard part. Not carrying my sweethearts purchases changed the purchasing equation. There were no endlessly hungry teenagers to consider.

More shopping stops on the way home. Including the library for a new book I’d placed on hold. A rare 75 degree February day, I put everything in the frig and kept the last hour of daylight to myself on the deck. Sometimes, I hear them at 3 or 4 AM.

Today, at twilight, they asked, in call and response, “Who, who cooks for you?”