Blueberry Cake

A sale on blueberries

At the local supermarket

Made me overbuy and search

For ways to use them up. 

At the age of 62

I baked my first (Internet recipe)

Sour cream blueberry cake;

Came out ok, though a bit too sweet. 

Many years ago,

I was elected by my mother

To visit once a month

An old friend of hers in a nursing home. 

I didn’t mind—it was

A chance to leave the apartment,

Take tramways, smoke cigarettes,

And eat a blueberry cake Miss Zofia baked. 

She had curly gray hair,

And thick eyeglasses;

She never complained and

Was always happy to see me. 

When things got bad

And my family got ready to leave

I came to say “good bye”—

The cake didn’t taste that well. 

Miss Zofia was philosophical: 

“Here at the home they notice,

‘A Jewess’, ‘doesn’t go to church’,

There it would be a synagogue

And I’d be a communist.”