The speaker sits down to a simple meal of mackerel, but something odd happens right away: the plate also holds "a cold heart." The poem then slips into a kind of riddle. The heart is no longer just food but a guest, one that "supped with us" and gave instructions, telling everyone to take three shares each. The line "which was very good" ends things in a flat, almost deadpan way.
The title, "Soul Food," hints at what's going on. The meal seems to feed something beyond hunger. Eating a cold heart might suggest taking in coldness, grief, or some hard feeling, yet the heart also behaves generously, urging abundance. The speaker doesn't explain this contradiction, and the calm tone makes it stranger and more intriguing.
The mood is quiet, dreamlike, and a little unsettling, but also oddly content. The poem seems to say that even something cold can nourish, and that sharing it, with plenty to go around, is somehow good.