Brisket, partially cooked, with black plums and bay leaf, in a large blue cast iron oven. Photo by Diana Ludwick
2026 Poetry Challenge - Poems - Short-form Musings

Brisket

Faith is a brisket
You do your best to select the most suitable cut you can find
You summon its power through a recipe passed down from your ancestors
Put on the lid and cast it into darkness, and the unknown.

Faith is a brisket
It will test your patience, your will, your trust
It will feel like something is not working, that things are not progressing
There will be a point where you wonder if it will ever come through for you.

Faith is a brisket
You feel like maybe you have cast your deepest hopes on the wrong star
You worry if you will need to alter or even call off your plans
And then there it is, ready when it is ready, and not a moment before.

Faith is a brisket
Trust the process
Check in often
And it will come through for you.

Faith is a brisket
It will get us through the dark times
The heated moments and uncertainty of what awaits us.
We are not done yet.

Poet, writer, photographer and slightly distracted day-dreamer who muses on (gestures at everything) from the petty to the profound. On a semi-serious, fully earnest search for meaning in the mayhem. Perimenopausal, melanin-deprived, irony-enhanced recovering perfectionist Type A+ millennial woman. She balances the ever-continuing quest to Know Better/Do Better, with the distinct ego-death of parenting a smart, full-throated child who was raised to know the power of her voice. Mothering a teen means catching a side-eye in almost every interaction. Diana navigates the minutiae of everyday life through seeking the magical in the mundane. Follow along and laugh with her as the world flames out!

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