Bread

doctors pure as angels, white as chefs

peruse menus on clipboards,

their exhaustion mouthed in metric

from a graveyard shift cuisine

measuring the flour, cutting off the surplus,

adhering to rules, to rules, to rules-

hospital smocks’ mocking exposure

to cold air and latex

the way fatigue sets in when

bilious walls deaden,

bringing on the drone of

fluorescent blood-suckers

as a hypo plunges deep into

a fat vein, pliant and compliant,

to siphon me through the

emptiness outside the box-

a distant voice is counting backwards…

I smell bread baking

 

—Jade Pandora

 

Jade Pandora (http://jade–pandora.deviantart.com/) is a California native. She is the 2010 recipient of the Matthew Rocca Poetry Award (Deakin University, Australia). She has written poetry since 2001, and studied/written Japanese short form since 2007. A published poet, her books “Stolen Light”, “Shooting Star”, and “Offerings: 2nd edition” can be found at www.lulu.com.