“Bread” by Daye Phillippo (poetry, ’14)

An excerpt from “Bread” by Daye Phillippo (poetry, ’14) published by The Northwest Indiana Journal:

 

Bread

There is a day that comes when you realize

you can’t bake enough bread

to make things turn out right, no matter

how many times you read Little House on the Prairie

to your children. There aren’t enough

quart jars to fill with tomatoes

or translucent slices of pear to keep you

from feeling unproductive. There is no bonfire

that burns orange enough in the chill October night

to keep your mind from following the lonesome

howls and yips of the coyotes concealed

by darkness in the harvested cornfield

just beyond the circle of your fire. And when you […continue reading here]