“Eat The Cake, Already!” by Selma Martin

Under fatigue of delinquent weightage
the plate comes this close to suffocating 
I know Cake looks tasty, but can't tell how it feels
but tell I can of the prostrate plate

Plate's aware that black forest cakes
roil in rich chocolate-- silk tiers of it piled high,
between which nuzzle pitted maraschino
steeped deep in sweet liqueur that
add volume in sugary grammage.

And that when it comes to whipped cream frosting
bakers tend to annihilate one
hence that black cake that's way too heavy,
like a tortilla flattens Plate’s smooth face.

To let it sit there unattended this long
with only the dark shards disappearing
is a crime-- someone best come to relieve
Plate of this mess before the forest cake
explodes from the fatigue of delinquent weight.

Copyright © 2023 Selma Martin
All Rights Reserved

Selma Martin is a retired English teacher with 20 years of teaching children ESL. She believes in people’s goodness and in finding balance in simple living. She lives in Japan with her husband. In 2018, Selma participated in a networking course whose final lesson was to publish a story on Amazon. After many failed attempts, she completed the course and self-published her short story, “Wanted: Husband/Handyman,” in 2019. Later, collaborating with peers from that course, she published “Wanted: Husband/Handyman” in Once Upon A Story: A Short Fiction Anthology. Selma has published articles and poems on Medium since 2017; she has a story in Short Fiction Break, 2017, and poetry in The Poetorium At Starlight, 2022, MasticadoresUSA, and Spillwords. After her first NaPoWriMo 2021, Selma writes poetry on her website, selmamartin.com, and is struggling to garner the courage to publish a book soon. You can find Selma, selmawrites, on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Featured Image: by Tabea from Pixabay 

Editor: Barbara Harris Leonhard 

@BarbaraLeonhar4

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Amazon Best-Selling Author, Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir (EIF-Experiments in Fiction, 2022) Pushcart Nominee, 2022; Facebook: Barbara Harris Leonhard /barbara.leonhard; Twitter: @BarbaraLeonhar4; Instagram: @meelosmom123; Linked In: ExtraordinarySunshineWeaver

Divider Image: by GDJ on Pixabay