To Be Devoured

The cool white cloth

wrapped itself around me.
Mother made it with her own hands
just like she made me.

She wrapped the girl in red,

but the girl protested,

stamped her foot,

face like a corkscrew.

I laughed to myself,

Don’t look so pretty now, do you?

She wore the cape in the end,

stormed out of the house,

swung me roughly in my basket

as she tore down the path.

Stop! I shouted.

Are you trying to kill me?

She calmed a little,

sung us both a ditty

about love and buttercups and mandolins.

Her voice soothed my seasick soul.

(I almost liked her then.)

I lost myself in daydreams —

Granny would caress me

say how sweet I smelled,

all almonds and cinnamon.

The girl hated Granny’s kisses.

How her cheek glistened with saliva!

I saw her wipe her face

when Granny turned away to stoke the fire.

Oh, Granny!
Won't you consume me with your kisses?

A voice wrenched me from my reverie.

His eyes deep as the forest,

drool dripping

from the corners of his mouth.

It was me he wanted, not her.

All she cared about was skipping in the grass.

I let him know

I longed to be devoured,

longed to give myself

to the wild green of his eyes.

* * *

Today's NaPoWriMo prompt is to write a poem in the voice of minor character from a fairy tale or myth. I love myths and fairytales and I found this prompt to be an inspiring one. I wrote two poems, each exploring food as character.

'To Be Devoured' is written in the voice of the cake in Little Red Riding Hood's basket. That Night With Her is written in the voice of the pea in The Princess and the Pea.

I'm feeling a little hungry now. I think I need to go and eat a piece of cake!

Cakes

Shining and sticky, they sit on the tray, won't be there forever, I know, so they tempt,

embarrassed I even want one, me, I am so, can't bring myself to take one, no

one wants items such as these anymore, say “items” to distance, hope it will cure 

the trauma of longing, “item” sounds tasteless, generic, but we know they are cakes, 

luscious, sugar filled, raisins bursting, covered with cinnamon and deepest darkest 

chocolate. I will have to act soon. Life is slipping from under my fingers. 

And they stretch. They want.

Today's poem is inspired by an exercise from 'The Music of the Line', a chapter in The Poet's Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux: Take a draft of a poem and rewrite it in the following ways:

very short lines

very long lines

some length in between

in three-line stanzas

in five-line stanzas

You will probably find yourself changing some of the words as you try out the various versions, adding and deleting material.

My favourite version was the one with longer lines. I tend towards shorter lines in my poems, so it was great to break out!

dream of the daisies

crowding together

climbing together

piling on top 

on top of each other

to get to the sun

to get to the sun

yellow hearts

soft and furry

singing singing

we want to come close to you!

huddling together

white petals flapping

hearts sturdy and strong

climbing climbing

always striving

covering the grass

dreaming of the day 

of reaching the sky

making a chain

leading right to the sun

oldest friend

oldest friend

we want to come close to you!

huddling climbing

dreaming reaching

hearts sturdy and strong

until one day 

eating eating 

the big yellow sponge cake

the sun has been baking

all these years

up up up

inside the blue.

This poem came out of today's wonderful, spring-inspired workshop with Nichola Charalambou of Creative Writes. The writing was prompted by a photo of daisies on a sunny day...

Lottie Loves Cake

My young friend, the magical and creative Lottie, gave me a list of words to write into a poem. Her words are the colours of the rainbow and this poem is for her...

LOTTIE LOVES CAKE

Lottie loves cake.

She loves it so much that she eats it all day long.

For breakfast she eats Moon Cake,

silver and round and full of the wonders of her dreams.

For lunch she eats Sky Cake,

big and wide as the clear blue sky,

with puffy clouds of icing on top

and a bird or two for decoration.

For dinner she eats Jungle Cake,

a very exciting cake,

covered with great leafy plants and bright pink flowers.

It is also a very noisy cake, 

with tigers growling and parrots squawking.

When her friend, Matilda, comes over for tea,

they play the viola and sing songs about cake

such as "every cloud has some silver icing"

and "there was an old woman who lived in a scone".

They eat Rose Cake together and paint their nails the colour of Roses.

Sometimes, they magic the cake into a real rose.

Then Felix, the dog, runs around in circles 

trying to catch the rose with his nose, it smells so good.

Barack, the cat, sits like an emperor, 

calm and majestic, and sips milk from a golden bowl.

Lottie asks her brother, Louis, if he would like a piece of Rose Cake

but he prefers to run around chasing Felix

and, anyway, Louis loves ice cream.

An Emotional Bake-off

Reality