Leaving the cake

We can have our cake and eat it - Boris Johnson

We ordered it in
a pleasant cafe
a Brussels side street
zinc tables, striped umbrellas

a large thick slice and
it seemed a simple
premise: have cake
eat cake

and what a cake
dense with promise
a teasing ganache
giddily we
fumbled for our forks

but slowly
held up by the
sun perhaps
at first
but then thickly, like
the mayonnaise
on the frites

doubts. maybe
perhaps premonitions
oozing over
our elevenses
sliding onto
the table
as ineluctable
as legislation
what happens
when we eat the
cake? Thesis:

no more cake
and with no more cake
there'd be
nothing, just an
absence of cake

a cakeless future
the clouds slid in
jazzily, urgently
like Brassens and

suddenly the thought
of eating it grew
ludicrous, who were we to
eat this cake? the density
of the crumb alone spoke
volumes

we'll leave the icing out of this

you can have the cake
or you can eat the cake
or you can
still arguing amongst yourselves
leave the cake
to the rain.