The prompt for today was to take Robert Frost’s poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ and use that as the inspiration for ‘a poem about your own road not taken – about a choice of yours that has “made all the difference,” and what might have happened had you made a different choice.’ This is a poem I’ve taught in school to Y9 students (13 and 14 year olds), so I’m familiar with it, but I’m afraid I’ve been rather flippant with today’s entry, parodying Frost’s poem to reflect the indecision felt when choosing between two cakes. I apologise unreservedly to former-President Barack Obama who said on several occasions that this was one of his favourite poems.

The Cake Not Taken

Two cakes stood still on a yellow plate,

And sorry I could not eat them both –

Too many calories – long I stood

And looked at both as much as I could

And thought of the weight that would pile on hips;

Then took the smaller, as just as nice,

And having perhaps the better icing,

Because it was pink and might taste the sweeter;

Though as for the other, it was much neater;

And both were really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

On a plate just asking to be eaten.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how much I now would weigh,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two cakes sat there on a plate, and I —

I took the one that was slightly smaller,

And that was the only difference.