gravy volcano 

my uncle taught my how to make a gravy volcano,
he took his thumb & patted down the center of 

a mashed potato mound. back then, on sundays we ate KFCs 
off china with our great-aunts. they changed

the table clothe for every season & put
two tall un-lit candles in the middle of the table.

i thought all this was very fancy. the whole point
of the gravy volcano was for the gravy to spill

over the side & make a mess; a formulated disaster. 
there's no a whole lot of those. my took the gravy 

boat & poured more & more, overflowing past the edges
of the plate & onto the (blue) table clothe. 

no one seemed to notice. i told him to stop,
that gravy was getting everywhere & i realized

i don't actually know what gravy is (meat?).
to be polite, i used my spoon to sip gravy off the plate.

my uncle didn't get older but i did & time moved slower/faster. 
the china stayed safe in the big glass cabinets

& no one changed the table clothe (blue). no one 
brought mashed potatoes but still my uncle held up 

the cruet of gravy. the table got bigger, so big
that it was hard to hear someone talking on the 

other side. what? what? i say as they talk without me.
i wonder sometimes if i have become one of the tall un-lit candles.

i haven't. my uncle gestured again with the boat of gravy. 
confused, i shrugged so he poured it slow over my head.

i had expected it to be warmer but it was cool
& fresh like water. when he was done & the boat

was empty & there was no one at the table. i got up
& lit the two candles humming volcano, volcano, volcano.