Recipe: Peanut Butter Pies
by Courtney Moody
1. Fill kitchen with women, 10 Rosies with rolled sleeves. Scatter
across tile like falling crumbs from chapped lips.
2. Pie filling is secret as the porch’s spare key. Release powder
from sealed lunch bags, letting clouds fill the kitchen and conceal
feminine forms. Add 2 cups milk and guard concoction with
grandma’s hand mixer.
3. Set 5 women to mix filling. They’re the ones with wrinkle-
shadows but no grandkids, the ones who hear whispers below
chanting mixers. Mix for 2 clock-hand ticks.
4. Pour mixed secrets into graham crust. Let shaky hands and
glasses thick as gelatin smooth mixture into its shell. Bury pie in ½
a bathtub of Cool Whip.
5. Lock the topping’s secret within a Fire-Safe woman. Mix
topping by hand until she wears peanut butter gloves. Sprinkle
over pie like sugar in a teacup.
6. Place young ladies on lid work, the ones with eyes blinded by
powder and hands too lilied to mix topping. Ensure their wax lips
are melted shut before induction. Cap completed pie, sealing edges
until fingertips are red as a sunset.
7. Chill pie in refrigerator, locking the icebox with numbers and
metal. Secrets are served best while cold as nitrogen.
COURTNEY MOODY
Courtney Moody holds a B.A. in creative writing from the University of Central Florida, where she was a Promising Scholar Award recipient and Honor Medallion graduate. Her work can be found in the YellowJacket Press anthology, “Chasing Light,” and “Cypress Dome 31.” She is also a professional ballet dancer.