No Substitute

Food eaten on the maimed edge
of fragility; cold, sacramental
offerings seven days delayed

prepared with pizzazz in joy 
for buoyant flavours blending
pure epicurean suspense 

greeted impassively – barely 
praised and not enjoyed on this
grey-tinged maleficent day

there is no savour for 
emotional malnourishment no
sustenance for emptiness
© 21 February 2010, I. D. Carswell