Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Wednesday Words: Exactly Full

An excerpt from Craig Arnold's poem "Couple From Hell," from his collection Made Flesh.

Here is a small cafe
opening for breakfast
a zinc counter catching the light
at every angle in bright rings of glitter
A cup of black coffee is placed before you
brimming with rainbow-colored foam
a packet of sugar      a pat of butter
a split roll of bread
scored and toasted and still warm
The butter is just soft enough to spread
the coffee hot and sugared to perfect sweetness
the bread grilled to the palest brown
crisp but not quite dry
You tear it nearly into pieces
eat them slowly      when you finish
you are exactly full

4 maids a-milking:

cevd said...

i think i love wednesday words.

wool and misc said...

oh god, what i wouldn't give to be there right now!

hatandfeathers said...

i wanted to comment on the previous c. arnold post--his poems are such incredible unfoldings. hard to believe there won't be more of them.

myletterstoemily said...

what a lovely, lilting poem.