If you Ate a Proper German Crumb Cake

“And, I think-- to be honest, I think most of the cake is crumbs, because that’s what tastes good [laughter]. And there’s also a reference (in the recipe) to ‘double the crumbs’, ’cause it’s better that way! Very little cake… lots of crumbs… delicious.”

- Mum (on the family’s recipe for Streuselkuchen)

If you Ate a Proper German Crumb Cake

you would drown in crumbs:

you would breathe in dry, sweet cinnamon,

asphyxiate in sugary dust.

taste one hundred years of family

of fondness

of love

the rest of the cake forgotten

buried deep underneath the fragments of

glittering, silver bronze

another memory gone to bed

another word yet gone unsaid

stuck in the back of the throat

since swallowed

and washed down with cold ice water

then,

finally break for air, again

-

(2022)