The Chosen Family Cookbook

by Caitlin McKenzie

  Eggs Benny
           Can a yolk run cautiously? Maybe it can try but its sunshine enthusiasm can’t      be     
contained, even if it’s a first meeting. It erupts and says, “My heart knows your               heart!
There is comfort here!”

Caramelized Pork Ramen
              We needed to learn the lessons of simmering. Sitting together in the peeled ginger,     
chili paste, brown sugar, chicken broth, mushrooms, and 5 spice. Becoming fragrant.     
​Becoming ourselves.

Salmon Cakes
             Picking bones out of canned salmon like I picked the sorrows out of you. Place them     
             on a commemorative plate, thin and white as paper. We name them and set them     
aside. I’ll add fresh dill to the flesh we can use, fry it, and call it a night.

Fresh Spring Rolls
          When you wrap a garden in rice paper and dip it in peanut sauce is there     
anything else to do but laugh? Our eyes still crinkle when they are swollen from         crying
​and the seeds we swallowed whole grow in our bellies when I leave your        house. 

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Caitlin McKenzie (she/they) is a queer neurodivergant poet and collage artist based out of Barrie, ON. Her work can be seen in publications such as Pink Plastic House Magazine, The Northern Appeal, Aurora Mag, and Acta Victoriana. You can find more of her work at her own tiny Instagram zine @therememberingroom.