The Cake I Have Eaten

Oh the cake I have eaten
Recovery never tasted sweet
And moist and damp
Sugar coated
Jam licked
Frosting fluted

Oh the flowers I’ve received
Beauteous bouquets
Lilies, carnations, wild flowers, artichokes,
Changing with the seasons
Autumn bouquets turns to winter bunches.

Oh the chocolates I’ve consumed
Beautiful boxes
Caskets of jewel like offerings
Roses and Quality Street
After eights and chocolate orange
Sharing with visitors
Pillowed up in my boudoir
The red and white patchwork
A friend for the eyes through it all.

The pyjamas and bed linen, bed socks and loungewear
Sitting there day after day
As summer turns to autumn
And autumn turns to winter
And winter turns to spring

And ever so slowly
So slowly I don’t notice it
I realize that something
Big
Has happened
And the time passing
And the clothes changing
Beds made
Trays of dinner
Books and magazines
Box sets and maths papers
Visitors with cake.
I become incrementally so imperceptibly slowly, little by little  - better.

And through it all Proust’s madeleines
At the back of my mind
Something sweet to remember
The mouthfuls for sweetness
Takes away the pain and disbelief
The uncertainty
Appointments and hospital visits

The cake I have eaten
Remains
To this day
A sweet memory
Of a time out of time. 

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