Rainbows For Tea

Take Care with this one
You need the right mix in the pastry
Get that wrong and it’ll all spill out
Get the pastry mix right
Make sure you’ve pressed it into the tin
Make sure the oven is the right temperature
Make sure that everything is meticulously done
The tables are set
You don’t need doilies
You don’t need doilies this time round
it’s nice to have but it’s 
Superfluous
Just yourself
Two plates
Cake forks are nice
If not, 

Fingers.
Fingers are fine
Sometimes better,
If you’re feeding each other.
What needs to happen is
Love
Attention
Care
Baked into the jam
Boiled slowly.
Not boiled!
Barely bubbling round the rim.
Keep that!
Keep it going
And when you think it’s cooling down
Pour it into your pie
Bake it again
Until it’s slightly chewy
Like a giant tart
You have to put some effort into the eating
As well.
Into the savouring
Because otherwise it goes by too quickly, you won’t know you’ve eaten
Rainbows for tea.

And when you do serve
Some ceremony is nice
Some sense of occasion
But it’s everyday 
Make your ceremony 
Something you can repeat everyday

Change it
When you’re used to it
Maybe whisper under the serviette
What you want to happen.
Maybe
A sprig of lavender 
In the cutlery tray
Maybe
Just some sunshine on the plates
That might be enough.
And when you’re sitting
Let the music be talk
Let the melody be light
Let the content
Be important to each other.
Shoes off at the door - 
Nothing from the outside in.
It’s a special occasion but it’s everyday,
So shoes off at the door.
Nothing from the outside in.
Coat hanging, drying, if necessary.
Take off those gloves.
You need to feel what you’re handling
With care.
Savour each crumb
Or maybe there’s some more
But that’s for tomorrow.