A waxy sheet
Spread out on the counter
Flour sprinkled over it
Cold and yellow
Vanilla cookie dough
Placed on the mat
A yellow and tattered recipe
Beside it
The words
“Pinwheel cookies” in dark ink
The wooden rolling pin
Squeaks
As it kneads the chilled dough
Chunks of the delicious treat
Swiftly disappear
As I snatch them off the edges
With nimble fingers
Familiar with the quick snatch
After a few sweet and treasured minutes
There is a smooth rectangle
Of yellow dough
It is moved off the mat
The chocolate dough going next
This time
You let me
Roll the dough
It takes a little longer
And it isn’t rolled as well
Uneven and bumpy
But you wait patiently
Guide me gently
Then
The chocolate
Gets flipped on top of the vanilla dough
Now
We are both stealing sugary pinches
Kneading and rolling
Pushing and folding
Twisting and twirling
Our striped and swirled
Pinwheel cookie dough
ann richards
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