How to Reconstitute Your Grandmother

Set out your biggest soup pot. Preferably one you inherited.
Line the pot with photographs of your grandmother throughout her life.
Add a carton of chicken broth. A parsnip, dill, celery, and carrot.
Add the wick from a Yahrzeit candle and your father’s ripped lapel from her funeral.
Fold in stories, including the rumors, the insults she gave and received.
Sprinkle with salt for the hard times.
Only a pinch of sugar for the good times, because things could always be worse.
Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer overnight.
Skim the fat from the top and let cool. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze.
Serve up Grandma anytime.

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Barbara Krasner is a New Jersey-based poet of ten collections, including the ekphrastic Poems of the Winter Palace (Bottlecap Press, 2025), The Night Watch (Kelsay Books, 2025), Insomnia: Poems after Lee Krasner (Dancing Girl Press, 2026), and the forthcoming The Wanderers (Shanti Arts, 2026), and Memory Collector (Kelsay Books, 2027).