Ritual for Leftovers
Tabitha Dilal
About the Author:
Tabitha Dial is the Roses & Wildflowers Poetry Editor and believes everyone can write. Her poem "Green Soup" won the Penned Literary Contest (2021). She holds a Poetry MFA from Colorado State University. Her latest book is "Cheese Astrology: A Weekly Guide".
Ritual for Leftovers
First, make friends who you can trust
with all the belongings you
will part with when you move several hundred miles:
the art and books. The lamps and kitchen goods.
The first throw pillows you bought yourself.
Gather the proper offerings for mutual
reinvention and invite your
friend over, the one who most
recently began their rebuilding:
They will knock on the door when you are cooking.
They will want to leave their shoes outside.
This is your soup for your New Year.
Add chicken broth to veggie broth and use the remainder
of the tomato juice from Thanksgiving.
Add handfuls of autumn kale,
grown at the greenhouse you can not take with you.
For the overflow -- a second pot.
At your twilight stovetop, when it is not yet done,
you may consider All Our Relations: include one
quarter palm of garlic powder and three more dashes
of salt for the earth.