Conversations From Before: A Poem
WORDS BY NATASHA NAGLE.
Marie Antoinette and the Great Bakery Kerfuffle
She said what? That’s ridiculous. I can’t simply believe,
What does she think; we have ready-baked pastries lining our sleeves?
I’d go so far as to say, there’s no respect for our art.
Better than chopping our head and stopping our heart.
It’s simply not doable. How would we ever be ready?
To feed that many—Oh, hold me. I’m woozy; unsteady.
We can't exactly tell her, this thing can’t be done.
Whatever we have to do, it’s not gonna be much fun.
And so a great many hundreds of cakes did they bake,
Using castle flour, eggs, and specialty fondant for common’s sake.
And when in the morn’ they proudly displayed they’d not flunked,
The queen cackled and heckled, ‘What up, you’ve been punked!’
EDITORIAL NOTE: This article has been reuploaded and was originally published in 2020.