Comfort Eating – Sharon Phillips

Comfort Eating

Dark is closing in, brisket simmers
on the hob. She tops it up with stock.

Radio 4 mutters in the living room,
upstairs a door creaks open and shut.

It is the autumn equinox. She finds
an out of date bag of potatoes, looks

for her mother’s old cookery book,
flicks through its pages for comfort:

cuts up potatoes into half moons,
grates cheese, chops garlic, ekes out

leftover cream with a splash of milk,
adds a teaspoon of nutmeg. Warmth

wafts through the kitchen. Perhaps
somebody will phone after supper.

…

Sharon started writing poetry when she retired from her career in education. Since then, her poems have appeared in print and online journals and anthologies. In 2022 her poem ‘Cut’ came third in the Leeds Poetry Festival competition and another poem, ‘Oh Karen’ was highly commended in the Yaffle poetry competition.