What is the tribal equivalent of casserole consolation?

Casseroles

Everyone is cooking up and down the street

Occupied with recipes for dealing with

When one dies, flowers and casserole

When born, cards and casserole

Casserole, how one copes in the Midwest

Rectangular, glass dishes, slicing perimeters

Before cutting squares.  We have eaten

One another after surgery, a dead pet

Bites of consolation, peering at flowers

Masticating the toil of unknown neighbors

Then meditating, all of us, once or twice

Eating the casserole. Enchilada. Tuna &

Noodles Whatnot.  This time it is our porch

Loaded with frozen glass, covered in foil

Our turn to place on a rack, slice neat

Squares through the bubbling dish, eat