Today is the last session of 2020’s Marathon. As I mentioned recently, I won’t be continuing with the Marathon activity in 2021. I will still be writing, but it’s time to close the door on these weekly sessions.

You may remember that sometimes I have used random phrases glued on library check-out cards as inspirations.

Once I have finished with them, I usually turn them into colorful versions of themselves. It’s just for fun, no theme or reason behind it, just fun. I’ll be using them as illustrations throughout this post.

Today’s works are all based on a common theme. Now, this is not something I have ever done before, but for whatever reason, I did it today. And what is that theme. It is — CAKE. Yes, cake.

I’m going to feature all the poems I did today. They are all short. There aren’t too many of them.

And, after all, today is the last Marathon day. Let’s let everyone have their say. So, here goes.

A poem about cake.

1.
Cake One

so many eggs
too thick in the bowl
sugar very thin
a marked flavor of
too much disappointment
I mark the recipe on the page:
Never make this cake again
you might as well eat grass

Another poem about cake.

2.
Cake Two

very light in the mixing bowl
nice and shiny wraps like a dream
Loves the oven and shows it
The bottom crisps
The interior floats
A delicious package this cake:
postmarked and delivered
to your plate
Perfect.

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A shadorma about cake.

3.
your pour it
with some symmetry
sticky sauce
fighting back
a crown of uneven drips
results. The cake sighs.

A tanka about cake.

4.
scraping the paper
the short stub of a pencil
lists ingredients
for the traditional cake
in your grandmother’s writing

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A tanka about cake.

5.
Sliced thin and sunburned
picnic cake slumps on its plate
oozing pink icing.
Flies inspect it. Reject it.
A passing bird shits on it.

A shadorma about cake.

6.
My prom dress –
Pink checked cotton cake
Red grosgrain
ribbon loops
Three linen rosettes smack dab
on my butt. Nice, huh?

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A shadorma about cake.

7.
Aqua glass
mixing bowl. Biggest
in the set.
Pink frosting
fills it to the top. The cake
tries not to worry.

*******

Now we have come to the end. Before I leave, I will show you one more image. It’s a large painting I did in June 2020. We had been at home in lockdown for almost 90 days. I felt despair and fear. I turned to my artwork, as I have so often before, to help me find a way to express my feelings.

This painting includes all the elements that matter to me in it: my home, my family, my friends, my belief that my life and my work has purpose. It’s called “I Hope”.

After I finished it, I heard of an online exhibit open to Pennsylvania residents sponsored by Penn State called Viral Imaginations. I submitted it to the exhibit with the idea that in a small way, my voice could be heard, and maybe someone else might find something in the images that symbolize to me what is important in my life.

I have a small granddaughter born this summer. I have never seen her in person and I don’t know when I will. She has come into a world that I often don’t recognize, and yet so many things are still present – friendship, family, art, writing, home. I have hope that her life will be lived in a good world.

I hope. I hope. I hope.

*******

I have felt so much support from all of you during these years I have been doing the Marathon. I will end here with my heartfelt Thank You to all of you. And my best wishes for all of you for continued good health and good spirits.