Béchamel Sauce

Béchamel Sauce

Somewhere within me I rarely choose to visit,
I suspect this is perhaps not going to work, and

she’s insisting it should only ever be made
with all-purpose flour, though I’ve been

coping fine with cornflour, or store-brand
packet mixes for years, and it comes out OK

three, possibly, four times out of seven.
And everything in her kitchen matches like

it was all bought with a flawless shrug
and a customary swipe of the store card.

But then we share uncannily similar tastes
in music – Wagner, Kid Creole – and I like

the way she likes the way I smell, even if
I don’t. I’m rafted to this quaint belief that

if you put the work in, there’s no limit
to the lumps that can’t be smoothed out.

 

first published in Cacti Fur, 2016