Measures

I own three sets of measuring cups now,

Twelve in all, plain aluminum everyday measuring cups.

The two sets are identical,

The cups a generation older differ only slightly.

My mother used to sing when she baked,

A reprieve from the daily task

Of putting basic staple meals on the table.

She'd bake cookies, oatmeal and molasses,

Apple pies and banana bread,

And once she even made eclairs.

She used measuring cups for those recipes.

For everything else, she used her own judgment.

My sister would have measured all her recipes,

Being a very detail oriented person.

In the more than forty years she owed the cups,

She did over her kitchens, and indeed her entire homes,

Several times: out with the old, in with the new.

But she kept in use her measuring cups.

Not being able to improve on their plain and homely function.

I have owned for four decades and more

Exactly the same set of measuring cups as she,

I never knew that though until just recently.

I suppose we discussed and compared almost everything

During all those years.

But not a set of plain old everyday measuring cups.

So now I own three sets of cups that my mother and sister and I

Used so often to carefully measure out sugar and flour and milk and water,

And, without being aware of it, time.