Hungry

can you be in a maze this thick and this deep
and still wind your way without panic
without the darting flight

from windowless shadowless something;
making the pavement stay beneath you
is an act of will but you trudge up the hill

from one unfixed point to another
or will the compass crush you

in the bell jar, caught as you are,
a finer speciman.
can you be in a question this immense

with sidereal issues crawling crablike
never starlike never getting anywhere she
cried at the grocers with her list

with nothing on it again.
some oranges, some coffee something said
it's hard to think when you're starving

hard to recall the names for food
and what was on the table then

in another life and the centerpiece, candles.

a bunch of cherries queried the angels
chocolate bars chimed the children
she never had

unfrosted cake she said.
I had no batter at home.
butter I mean

what good is bread then

mary angela douglas 22 june 2015;11 march 2016