Deluxe Memory

Deluxe salad days

2 pkgs cherry jello

1 lemon jello

1 1/2 c. Pineapple juice

1 c. Whip cream

1 c cottage cheese small curd 

Deluxe salad

Family time 

July 1968

Or '69

Those were the days

When simple jello

Was tbe exotic 

When pineapple juice

Was the world

Brought to you

In a can

Sweetness 

Tropical

Palm trees and ocean breeze 

In the dry Utah-Idaho  summer-scape

Cousins and teetertoters

Hot shiny metal slides to the sand

And grass

Swing high jump out to the sky

Land fall roll laugh

Do it again

Grownups talk in the shade of

The park picnic tables 

Under mighty cottonwood trees 

Faded photos taken that day

Of the old folks

Four sisters One brother

Grandma joy

Great Aunt ined

Great Aunt elma

Great Aunt orpha

Great Uncle Dick--old cowboy--alcoholic

All in a row

So long ago

Seems like yesterday

But dim

Til I taste the deluxe salad

I made today

July in 2010 California

And it has the right flavors

Color 

Almost the same textures 

But not as pretty as grandma's. 

Which means

I'll have to try again

So I can hold that day

Tight to me 

Like today

Like time 

Isn't bound 

Or linear

But alive still

However we choose

To know it.