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Donating the Cake Dome

by Lisa C. Krueger

She couldn’t stop—she did it
almost every afternoon while

they napped or later sat
upstairs with homework.

She listened to the scrape
of desk chairs on the ceiling

while she measured and blended,
hummed from oven

to sink, redolence rising
in a sweet promise she thought

was required, didn’t know
how to live without,

all her life afraid
to be left empty-handed.

"Donating the Cake Dome" from "Run Away to the Yard." Copyright © 2017 by Lisa C. Krueger. Used with the permission of Red Hen Press.