Banana Cake

My mum always buys the bananas
going cheap - you know,
the ones they put in bins
marked "special" or "salad"
slightly spotty
soft and squashy.
She says, "I'll make banana cake."
But we know better:
we know she'll be too busy
to bake, running late for this and for that -
we know those bananas
will be ours to eat.


Mum says, "Cut off the bad bits,"
and, "They're really sweet."
But we don't - we won't!
we push them to the back
of the refrigerator
where they lurk in the dark
soggy and black,
growing white stuff.
Until, one day, Mum puts
her hand in the refrigerator
and screams, "Ohh, what's that!"
And we shout: "Banana cake!"

by Vivienne Joseph

Taken from the book Another 100 New Zealand Poems for Children

I got a little side tracked from sorting books when I came across this one, a bit of light reading for Sunday :)