This poem is inspired by Shawna Lemay’s Transactions With Beauty birthday post (HAPPY BLOGGING BIRTHDAY, SHAWNA!) and The Farewitch of Foxe Holler by Ellen Pauley Goff
Angel Food Cake
Zia R’s signature dessert
is Angel Food Cake
(from a box, but still holy)
& each holiday & birthday
celebration is marked with
this feather-weight delectable
Zia R bakes the cake early
in the day then lets it cool
edges crusted to chewy
perfection & when she lets
me eat the sawed off ugly
bits I know angles swoop in
this kitchen, women-heavy
one coolwhip stays in the
freezer, while the other softens
to spreadable pleasure & I watch
ger scoop and swirl the fluffy edges,
but not before cutting the entire cloud
in half & slamming ripe bits of
strawberries into a luscious layer
the white, airy sugar holds it all
together—a promise
on the table, clothed and crumbed
more strawberries, the half-frozen
coolwhip with sharp shards of ice
that melt the on the tongue like a kiss
this tall confection seems to small
for everyone to indulge… yet there
is always a few slices leftover &
over the years, as the celebrations
dwindle & the cake pan rusts
I realize that we women are all
witches, urging our love into food
that a kitchen is a living grimoire
& a dining room is an immaculate
reception, that Zia R’s Angel Food
cake is a recipe for sacred remembering
& sugar & berries & bellies & burnt crusts
is the stuff of saints & goddesses & angels
& we are all deserving of this edible heaven
VANESSA SHIELDS 