50 grams cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

225 grams plain flour

½ a teaspoon baking powder

When we think of the recipes

of our very favourite women

Women whose eyes

we have fallen into and out of

Do we insist that joy be poured into them? 

If we ever do, with what measure?

How willingly does the world crank and shift

So a woman’s freedom expands uninhibited?

When have we insisted that a woman

not be edified by her sighs

her brushes with death

her muting

her martyrdom?

Have we ever insisted that girlhood

be frivolous and not solely

a training ground for battle?

That girls be anything other

than ordained cavalry

in a war for all mankind?

How willingly does the world crank and shift

So girlhood is not a curse

but a meal prepared

on a well set table

And so our favourite women live

in a world brimming with sweet recipe?

CAREN AKOTO-ADADE