The Canadian Cookie Exchange Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

The Canadian Cookie Exchange
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
It all began in Phoenix, USA
When Elaine Smith, a dear apartment complex manager and friend
Said, Honey, you got to do the Christmas cookie exchange
But only if you want to
And this coming on top of the Hindu heritage of gift exchange
Seemed like the next best thing to the Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake;

I baked her recipe for delicious pecan cookies
And she gave me chocolate coconut cookies as tasty as our romantic life,
My husband's and mine, which could get as hot as the Arizonian summers
Which literally bordered on Indian summers
And in the middle of winter, we moved to Toronto, Canada,
Where the grass is green and the people are delightfully charming
And life back then, was a whirlwind of activities,
Both romantic and career oriented;

But the rest of the poem dates back to 2012 when Rocio of the
Great Reactions As in Yours - GRAY time, went to Peru for a year with her son
And we both exchanged gifts at a furious pace afterwards
If I took her out for lunch and invited her over for elaborate dinners and gave expensive gifts
She gave me equally expensive gifts and was a delightful dinner guest as were the others
And thus there was the bond of the neighbourhood which has begun to fade
For the lady and her family have been residents of the Royal York area
And have left us feeling bereft for they no longer reside in the Bloor West Village neighbourhood;

If every cloud that hides the sun has a silver lining
And in my case, it is that I have the narcissus plant in front of me
And revel in my feminine feminism and my femininity,
There is also the truth that there could be a rainbow
Which emerges from behind the gray clouds
For we have more little children around the neighbourhood of the Bloor West Village
And their sunny smiles and childish laughter make for good storytelling amongst ourselves.