End Notes
Aphasia
A poem by Erik K. St. Louis, M.D.
When I think
about Aunt Goody, I see
aluminum tins
filled with sweet, sandy,
impossibly light
Sandbakkels, baked
delicacies we horded
each Christmas and
savored like a lover’s letter.
Love, not spoken aloud,
She embodied instead
in Sandbakkels.
Now, robbed
of strength and
voice, she’s void,
tin emptied,
except for some crumbs
on the bottom.
Love, an idea left behind,
seen, tasted, not heard.
If she could speak
those unrequited words
she’d say, needed more sugar
while I could still bake.
Erik St. Louis is a neurologist and associate professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.