Imitation of RSVP by Danielle Pafunda

You ordered your “just desserts” and thought you were being funny
About getting sick on sugar
And buried your guilt in gooey golden pastry piled high with cherries
So bright they must’ve been spray-painted
Slurping up lime-flavored envy with candied vanity in the middle
And devouring cup after cup of hot steaming hypocrisy
Until you were so full all you could do was eat

But you didn’t know that “just deserts” is spelled with one “s”
Like the place your car broke down last week after you
Ditched work to meet that sleazebag in Flagstaff
Sitting in the sun feeling your skin blister and getting windburn
Hoping the dirty fat good Samaritan
Would be done changing your tire soon

When you got back to work on Thursday all you had to show
Were some second-degree burns, a scorpion sting
And an (ex-)live-in boyfriend who changed the locks on you
All the office had left was a charred and moldy chocolate cupcake
And you ate it anyway—your just deserts.