DINNERTIME (RAIDING CUPBOARDS)
- Apr 24
- 1 min read
By Clair Mangan
The morsel of frozen pastry
sits on her tongue,
her ears pricked for noise,
hands stuck to the fridge door,
as the last light of the
day exits its ugly head through
curtain folds.
A packet of biscuits
3 birthday cake slices
3 donuts
6 mini sausage rolls
Half a cheeseboard.
Leftovers-
she’s just getting started,
a balloon fit to
EXPLODE!
Is it the thrill of eating stolen
food? Or that her housemate
Joanna has started to ask
questions about her rapidly
depleting Nutella jar?
Is it the filling
and filling
and filling
of the emptiness
And magically
throwing it
all
back
up
again?
Creak next door-
but no one’s meant to be home-
she slams the freezer door shut,
turns to the empty cupboards,
back to the empty fridge
the Frozen filo pastry melting in her hard fist
as
prickling,
Ugly tears
redden her cheeks,
and silently, she’s calculating
how much food she’ll
need to buy to replace
everything.
Scuppering the party,
she pulls on her coat,
A visit to Tesco needed
-quickly-
before anyone
notices anything
missing.