For One Coconut Cake From The 1950s

["Wouldn't it be sweet," mimicked Marjory, "if we could have the moon and about twenty stars to play jacks with?"
-Dandelion Cottage (a lovely children's novel by Carol Watson Rankin)]


for one coconut cake from the 1950s
with its solo ornamental maraschino,
I would give a kingdom.

or for a german chocolate cake
from 1961; perhaps, a few jacks
glinting in the sun,

the porch we played on.
or, better, the batters all put by,
the lemon meringue

the chocolate ice box pie.

No! Wait!
a princess gown, a real one
straight from Fairyland

embroidered with the strands
of all roses;moss velvet leaves.
a sliver of moonlight,

wedding cake wise.and underneath all these,
a cracker jack surprise?

eclairs,eclairs, a crystal stair...

but we delayed too long
in the wishing time machine
and woke up suddenly

from a really good
(cream-filled)
dream.

mary angela douglas 28 march 2016