Assemble All Ingredients

You bake, an effort to recreate something from long ago.
Biscuits. Preheat oven to 450. Cold butter and milk thickened with vinegar.

Back in the day you used Crisco, before trans fats. Heavier then
by twenty pounds, you swam every morning in the university pool. Cut

a half stick into dry ingredients until it resembles coarse meal—
whatever that means. The cellist you lived with then is dead. Grease a shallow

baking tray. He left behind a wife and three young children. Make a well
in center of dry ingredients, add curdled milk. The trombonist you broke

up with for the cellist—he’s dead too. Do not overmix. Coat your hands
with gluey batter, knead lightly, shape into a soft one-inch round. Ignore

sticky smears on every surface, fridge and oven handle.
The other cellist you married who might as well be

dead—bitter, angry, gone full MAGA out in the woods of New Hampshire.
He liked your biscuits but other than Bach, he wasn’t much good

with his hands. You don’t own a cookie cutter, so use a scotch glass
to cut circles from the disc until only scraps of dough remain. Discard

(you not being one for leftover odds and ends). Set timer. Soak
bowl in hot water until white globs float to surface, then discard,

be careful to avoid clogging your drain. It is advisable at this point to run
disposal until all remnants of solid material are dissolved.

Once biscuits are lightly browned on top, remove the tray from oven, allow
to cool. Enjoy.