pink is the color of cupcake icing
neither strawberry-flavored
nor raspberry
something in the almost-cherry family
but not quite cherry
pink is the color of cupcake icing
that doesn't taste like anything real
my mother never bought
pink-icing cupcakes
and she never made them herself
that would require
a working relationship with an oven
(and an oven
that worked)
but in any case
she wouldn't buy
pink-icing cupcakes
for my birthday
or my sister's birthday
because she had an aversion
to the color pink
it wasn't a pre-feminist thing
it’s just that she had certain likes
and certain dislikes
and she disliked colorful colors
my mother liked brown
any shade of brown —
taupe sand sienna bark
chestnut tan almond camel
coffee
if it was brown
my mother approved
so we would have had chocolate-icing cupcakes
if we were having cupcakes
but we never had cupcakes
we had cheesecake ….
…. from the deli
