When I Am Gone by Sue Finch

Serve soul cakes.
Sprinkle dried green lettuce on salty crackers,
plate up purple and orange macaroons,
yellow too if it pleases you.
Spear black olives onto cocktail sticks,
put out far too many bottles of red wine.

Spend an hour of your morning cracking 
almonds into small bowls
sweeping up the dust and debris
with your hands.
Let each fruit be a memory 
(trust me they are not really nuts)
but watch out for the bitter ones.

Everything must fit mouths that are not hinged
to be wide;
that potential to be slipped in nonchalantly
between tales that bring out hard laughter.
Except apples;
they will let you watch for
who bites right in,
who takes a knife to them,
who puts two in their bag for later.

If a soul cake remains on that table 
at the end, 
take it to the coast,
await the interest of gulls
then toss it decidedly upwards.
Let the cries fill the air.

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Sue Finch lives with her wife in North Wales. Her first published poem appeared in A New Manchester Alphabet in 2015 whilst studying for her MA with Manchester Metropolitan University. Her work has also appeared in The Interpreter’s House, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Poetry Bus Magazine and in Crossings Over, an anthology published by Chester University Press. Her first collection will be published in Autumn 2020 with Black Eyes Publishing UK. Twitter: @soopoftheday 

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