harlequin gateau

i will walk through my childhood by myself
i will not be led
i will answer no clumsy questions about
what it was like and if i was happy
instead i will reach into my bag
and pull out
a cake
harlequin gateau from Littlewoods
palepink caramel icing, sugar sweet against my tongue
as good as the picture on the box
cake on a plate
saturday teatime
i would love to tell you
how it felt
crumbling in my mouth
but please don’t try to tell me
what it meant.
i know what it meant
it meant we had cake.