Grief Cakes

Old-Fashioned Grief Cakes from Scratch:

Ingredients:

Universal Sorrow, sifted through fine brambles - 2 cups

Powdered Emptiness - 2 tbsp

Disbelief - 1 tbsp

Regret for Time Squandered - One cube, crumbled

Finely Ground Bitterness - To taste

Boiled Anger - 1 cup

Loss, softened on the stove of anger - 1/2 cup

Midnight Tears, collected in fragile crystal - 1 globe

Sift dry ingredients into an heirloom bowl.

Punch a well in the center. Punch hard.

Crack the crystal globe. Disregard any shards and slivers.

Add wet ingredients to the midnight tears. Stir to a batter.

Splash a dollop onto a blazing hot griddle.

Throw the bowl and remaining batter through the kitchen window.

Cook until the cake blackens at the edges, then flip. Repeat.

Wrap the Grief Cake in sackcloth. Tie with coarse twine.

Carry the bundle to a special place. You know the one.

Unwrap the cake. Take one bite. Chew to a bitter paste.

Force your tongue to parse every flavor.

Do not swallow.

Spit the masticated mess onto the ground.

Feed the remaining cake to the crows.

Acknowledge that you will prepare this recipe more than once.

Know also that in time you will lose your taste for it.

Marco Etheridge is a writer, occasional playwright, and part-time poet. He lives in Austria. His writing has been published around the globe. When not crafting stories, Marco is a contributing editor for a new ‘Zine called Hotch Potch.