{"id":2290,"date":"2026-08-01T06:24:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2290"},"modified":"2026-08-02T12:23:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T12:23:24","slug":"comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2290","title":{"rendered":"Comfort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Saturday calls for pre-heating the toaster oven to max,
unearthing two bricks of gold from the freezer,
and waiting over a mug of dark roast 
while laminated frozen dough lumps
melt into crisp-bottomed pastries.

Core memories wash over me 
as my hands twist open 
a red and white plaid-lidded jar of preserves.
Grandma's favorite brand, now mine, too.
Load a big scoop of glistening raspberries
and plop a syrupy spoonful 
onto my parchment paper-lined plate.

A few pats of butter hold their scalloped edge 
dredged in from the table knife.
I lift my spoon, smear jam to hot biscuit.
As I bring the buttery glory to my lips, 
I hear the curdling cry of the washing machine,
my peace pierced through by that shrill tone 
that can only mean
\"UB\" - Unbalanced Load.
That is, a near future of cold, 
slimy wet arms up to my elbows, 
fighting to free a knotted lump of bed linens 
in the groaning washer. 

I squeeze my ears shut:
\"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!\" 
Chores beg for me, 
but I stake my claim to this moment.
They will have to wait, just a bit.

I bite a corner off my baked good.
Molten butter drips down my chin
while I pretend that I am fully here.
If not convenient, if not peaceful,
\"This is comfort,\" I tell myself. 



<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cComfort,\u201d an ode to the simplicity and feeling of calm that a homemade biscuit can bring, and how quickly peace can be erased by the Calll of the Washer. Written Saturday, August 01, 2026 poem 201 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: “Comfort on a Plate,”  by Diana Ludwick \u00a9 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2126,2130,1438,2,776],"tags":[2184,2172,2161,2162,1799,2170,2165,525,93,1838,2164,2171,2167,2166,2163,1463,134,2173,2169],"class_list":["post-2290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-culinary","category-eating-and-drinking","category-nostalgia","category-poems","category-short-form-musings","tag-august","tag-baked-good","tag-biscuits","tag-bonne-mamman","tag-calm","tag-chores","tag-comfort","tag-core-memory","tag-grandma","tag-high-summer","tag-home","tag-in-the-moment","tag-irish-butter","tag-kerrygold","tag-rasberry-preserves","tag-sourdough","tag-summer","tag-this-is-comfort","tag-ub-unbalance-load"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2290"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2323,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2290\/revisions\/2323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}