[the Writing of Kuypers]    [JanetKuypers.com]    [Bio]    [Poems]    [Prose]

Order this iTunes track from the poetry audio CD Hope Chest In The Attic 13 Years of Poetry & Prose ...Or order the entire CD set from iTunes:

Listen to & download this track from the DMJ Art Connection, from the CD set The Things They Did To You”.

Watch this YouTube video live at the Cafe in Chicago 11/03/09

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers mentioning her poem “Evicted Today”, then reading her 3 poems “Egg Drop Soup”, “Quibbling over Religion” and “Before it Occurred to Me” 8/21/16 at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (video filmed from a Canon Power Shot camera).

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers mentioning her poem “Evicted Today”, then reading her 3 poems “Egg Drop Soup”, “Quibbling over Religion” and “Before it Occurred to Me” 8/21/16 at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (this video was filmed from a Sony camera).

Egg Drop Soup or a response to a love letter “I think of us holding hands, walking up the beach, in the afternoon rays of the Grecian sun, to a sleepy whitewash and cobblestone village...” J. Z. I decided that I want to make you dinner someday. Shrimp, bean sprouts, rice, teppan steak, egg drop soup, tea... Why? Oh, I don’t know. I just thought you’d like it. I don’t know why that surprises you. At work I saw a little boy, about five years old. He had a shy look to his face, the kind of look that tells you that you -- and only you -- are his best friend. I told a coworker that I’ll have a lot of kids one day -- “Yeah, but I’ll buy ’em. I hear there’s a lot of money in the baby market.” But inside I only hoped that one day I’d have a baby boy as beautiful as he. I think about that a lot now -- the future, children -- and how one day your son will grow up to be as wonderful a man as you. I was with a friend today as she was holding her one month old baby. It’s amazing how maternal we women get, but when she asked me if I wanted to hold the baby a surge of joy, a belief that something so wonderful couldn’t be happening to me, and a shock that the mother trusted me with her child went through me. And when I held the new life in my arms, when I held up his head in the palm of my hands, the thought that one day this may be mine moved me to the point of tears. Holding that baby helped me understand that it’s not just that my life is getting better, and coming together, but that one day all of the pieces will fall into place and that my family -- and my life -- will be complete. You can think of the Grecian sun, but I care to think about all of the other days I could share with you. Not the days that create memories, but the days that run into one another and create the mood to one’s life. I think of arriving home from work to start dinner -- the egg drop soup first, then the rice -- and when the shrimp is almost done you walk through the door, take off your coat, greet me with a kiss. You boil the water and let the tea steep as you say, “You did all of this for me?” But I don’t know why that surprises you. I just thought you’d like it. Copyright Janet Kuypers. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission.