You liked it best when I sautéed them

With onions and oil, though I don’t like onions

You use to hold up the frying pan cover

To shield me from the scalding hot oil

One time, we all made different kinds

Potato, cheese, buffalo chicken, cheese steak

Though you don’t eat steak

We smoked and ate them all afternoon

But we won’t make them like that anymore

They’ll never cook the same without your shield

They’ll never taste as good as our afternoon

Lying in my bed and reading to each other

I am comforted by the fact that

You and her will never be you and me

And no matter how hard she tries

Her pierogies will never be as good as mine

(And I’ve found someone new to make them with)

-Jennifer Mergott