Jacqueline Karp
Organic Loaf
I clutch the hot round bread close.
Heat burns through the crinkly brown
paper, enters me
like the warmth of a child held to the breast.
And now the cars fills too with a soft
fleshy smell that blends
warm armpits with a whiff of fresh turd
and the sour metallic scent of unwashed
private parts, a mix of barm and growth
and baby sleep.
Back on the road, I reach out and press
the round mound
sitting in the hot bag beside me,
inviting as a firm buttock, though
black and charred on the crust’s edge
where yeast has burst out
and curled open the skin
like a ritual scar on an African boy’s smooth face.
Page(s) 23
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