apples reddening on heavy trees,
the lanes sweet with brambles
and our fingers purple,
then the child coming easy,
too soon, in the wrong place,
things seasonal and out of season
towed home a harvest moon.
My daughter's daughter
a day old under an umbrella on the beach,
Latecomer at summer's festival,
and I'm hooked again, life sentenced.
Even the sea could not draw me from her.
This year I bake her a cake like our house,
and old trees blossom
with balloons and streamers.
We celebrate her with a cup
The house-shaped cake for the baby’s third birthday could represent the fact that the baby’s mother went into labour at her grandmother’s house. The cake itself is rich and sweet, a mixture of flour, sugar and eggs, significantly harvest produce, for special special life affirming occasions
Mali