by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor

I think careful cooking is love, don't you?
~Julia Child

Isaac's not mentioned
once replaced by the ram,
only his sparing. Not one

ounce of disappointment,
not one question
about an unfit parent,

only people singing.
Show me how we prevent
fathers from sacrificing

children to honor
Gods with offerings.
Show me a mother

who wouldn't bind
babies to a stranger
to recover an hour

over the fire alone.
The "card-carrying carnivore,"
Julia Child's just one

whose sacrifice—
hers to Boeuf Bourguignon—
was childlessness.

My son and daughter
bound to rock-like seats
in the sanctuary, augur

their own dismay.
To feel God in my hands
what wouldn't I give away?

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Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the University of Georgia, is the author of Imperfect Tense (poems) and three scholarly books in education. Winner of NEA Big Read Grants, the Beckman Award for Professors Who Inspire, and a Fulbright for the nine-month study of adult Spanish language acquisition in Oaxaca Mexico, she's served for over ten years as poetry editor for Anthropology & Humanism, judging the ethnographic poetry competition. She blogs at http://teachersactup.com.