Aunt Earline's Jelly Cake

Ain’t betta than heaven.
It is Heaven.
She makes one exclusively for me every Christmas.
She’s as sweet as the cakes she makes.

My Aunt Earline is heaven.
Could teach them bakers at Piccadilly’s a thing or two.
She’s as sweet as the cakes she makes.
Four-layered halos,

Unlike what the bakers at Piccadilly’s make:
Slices of dry, tasteless desert wrapped in plastic.
My Aunt makes four-layered halos.
I can tell she slaved ova every crumb.

Delight concealed in a plastic seal.
Daddy prefers her coconut cakes
But it’s too messy. All them crumbs,
Shards of coconut on the counter.

But he doesn’t care; he’ll eat it anyway,
Hard icing and all.
Shards of coconut on the counter.
Takes more than milk to wash that stuff down.

On like it when the icing get hard.
Unlike the apple jelly on Aunt Earline’s jelly cake
I wash down with a cold glass of milk
While watching CNN in the den.

Will do anything for Aunt Earline’s jelly cake
Think I will call her tonight
Before Saturday Night Live comes on
And ask her to send me one by Federal Express.

Artwork by Wayne Thiebaud