THE QUALITY OF MERCY (Bake-off version)
The quality of mercy is quite strange,
The grass is wet,
Although as yet
It hasn't rained, upon the place beneath.
It is twice blessed
It blesses him that sieves and him that bakes..
And those who sit in judgment from on high
On decorated cake and spicéd pie
Might regard the awful power of sceptered kings
As less than burgered bun or onion rings
And so, regarding ye who justice seek
Think on't, that though thou scal'st the peak
Of thine ambition every week and gain thy star
And prove thy skill, eclipse thy peers by far,
Though thou might bake confined inside thy pie
Blackbirds that fly,
Or bring forth from thine Aga-ed heat a dish
Of his Grace of Cornwall's starry-gazing fish
Thou still shalt fail,
For in thy last confection
Must enmesh
A pound exact of thine own living flesh
© nigel hallworth 2021