Poetry Competition 2021 - Third Place

Tracy Davidson

A Spoonful of Syrup

Treacle. That’s what I think of
when I remember my grandmother.

Not just because it was her word
for anyone whose name she didn’t know
or couldn’t quite recall.

Her kitchen always smelled of it.

That dark, sticky stuff
she would liberally dole out
into her bakes, all those sumptuous
puddings and cakes and cookies
of my childhood, letting me
lick the spoon after.

She would look at me, sideways,
her head tilted, an unasked question
on her lips, to which the answer was always
a series of near-orgasmic noises.
Then she would nod, satisfied
that her efforts met approval.

I paint her now, in that tilted pose.

When the baking had long since ceased,
she would look at me sometimes
in exactly the same manner.
Only those times, her unasked question
was different.

By then, she called me treacle too.

 

Tracy Davidson lives in Warwickshire, England, and writes poetry and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in various publications and anthologies, including: Writing Magazine, Mslexia, Modern Haiku, Poetry Pea, Shooter, Journey to Crone, The Great Gatsby Anthology, In Protest: 150 Poems for Human Rights.