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The Meaning of the Title "Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup"

The poem "Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup" by Amy Gerstler contrasts the sweets of the speaker's youth to the soupy, flavorless aura of fruit cocktail. The interpretation I got from the poem was that the "light syrup" in the title represented the sugary, artificial corn syrup present in so many sweets.

A strong supporter of this idea comes from the direct mention of syrup in the poem, in the line

"With it's striped triangular 'kernels' made of sugar, wax, and corn syrup..."

I do also believe that the title is clever because, to me, it's almost saying that the only way to improve fruit cocktails are to drown them in the sweet corn syrup that the speaker is so nostalgic about.

But I still do wonder: why 'light' syrup? Does the speaker believe that this is the acceptable alternative to drowning the fruit cocktail in syrup? I guess that, like most poetry, there are an indefinite amount of answers I can create for myself.

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