The Cake

I saw a cake the other day,

someone’s dad its amateur chef.

It was a horribly ugly cake,

short, lopsided, yellow under belly

peaking through powdered sugar—

a horribly ugly cake.

Each layer placed haphazard

in somewhat similar fashion as she’d

done all forty-four years before.

The icing between evidence that he had

time still to match her perfection.

Forty-four perfect cakes enjoyed for her 

daughter’s perfect birthdays truly.

And now one horribly ugly cake,

lopsided and small, yellow under belly

peaking through powdered sugar—

and she enjoyed it truly.

J

Artist: Jen Norton