Have your cake in front of you.
No camera phone. Just cake.
No fork, no spoon, no knife to cut,
No drink your thirst to slake.
No design or happy words,
Just frosting, flat and plain.
No chocolate/berry filling,
Just vanilla-y, gluteny grain.
That’s your cake on the table.
Do with it what you will.
Dress it up and grab cutlery?
Chow down till you get your fill?
How hungry are you? How resolved
On civilized deportment?
How valuable are aesthetics
To your pleasure of events?
Does your diet consist of protein
To balance the sugar rush?
Have you eaten your share of vegis
To get vitamins and such?
Do you view life in the long term –
Many meals yet to come?
Or get caught in life’s moments –
With your urges must you run?
And who else is around you?
Might they some hunger share?
Will you call them to your table,
Or pretend they are not there?
This existential questioning
Might curl you in a ball.
Must eating be this stressful?
It’s just cake, after all.