A buried poem* of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “First Fig”
My early cookie preference was for classics—
Oreo, Chips Ahoy, the exotic Nutter Butter
for special occasions that don’t require
candle or cake. All day at summer camp
fending off “Indian” burns and wet willies
at the same time, mealtimes the only respite
for both of us, it seemed. Our otherwise
empty table ends nearly touching for days
before I noticed the cakey brown cookie.
You ate it every dessert. I thought “I
like crunchy cookies—that will melt
or something—it’s not a cookie, cookie.”
The last day I finally asked—first words
I’d spoken since the night before. “What’s that?”
“A Newton” you said, like a statement,
but you extended your already-bitten half
and smiled as I accepted and stuttered “Ah,
th-thanks” and momentarily my cabinmate
foes melted from my periphery, and your
teeth marks disappeared into my mouth
and without thinking I said “Oh,” as
the cake and fruity-yet-earthy filling
combined on my tongue and fireworks!—
though, the cookie was merely a symbol
a stand-in that carried not-half my excitement
and when Mom picked me up she asked
if I made any friends and I proudly waved
the napkin with your address in pink marker.
“You’ve made a penpal!” She said proudly.
It was just the first shared cookie of many—
a memory that gives my skin momentary moguls
and a lovely lightness that lifts me to this day.
* A buried poem is a poetic technique which is essentially the opposite of an erasure or blackout poem. Instead of removing words from a longer text, a short text (usually a piece of minimalism or a quote) is used as the base, and greatly expanded, spreading the original words far apart, but keeping the order the same so, should someone be so inclined, they could make an erasure of the “buried poem” and reveal the original piece.
Zebulon Huset is a high school teacher, writer, and photographer. He won the Gulf Stream 2020 Summer Poetry Contest and his writing has appeared in Best New Poets, Rattle, Meridian, North American Review, New York Quarterly, The Southern Review, FENCE, and many others. He publishes the prompt blog Notebooking Daily, and edits the journal Coastal Shelf.
Image: mashed.com
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