Bread and Man

[Delta40]

There is a crusty loaf
which doesn't bake to shape.
Bulging at the edges,
the Elephant Man Baker
taps his protruding forehead
and ponders the distended dough.
An intense burst of heat during baking?
Are his own grotesque features
from a rapid gestation?
Have not bread and man ever been conceived ardently,
hastily, by the kitchen hearth for a half penny?
He agonizes whether to saw the humps off
at the close of day and eat them with jam.
The kneaded work of his stubbled fingers
raises each loaf to a hearty full flavour,
yet this gross excess remains out of sight.
Across time, the crust cools and hardens.
The acute swelling mass loses its freshness,
its novelty.
While the Elephant Man Baker pursues perfection,
he leaves misshapen meanings on the back shelf,
where countless creations gradually become stale.

[Hawkman]

The last three lines of this speak volumes, a poem in their own right. The lengthy preamble is a bit prosy perhaps, but it's got some great imagery.

Live and be well - H

[PrinceMyshkin]

What an astonishing poem! It's the sort that makes me passionately curious about how it was conceived. It seems to come from an imagination that spent a long time in a dark, humid place!

[MystyrMystyry]

Sounds to me all that missed sleep caught up with you, and then you fell into a deep dark dream

And/or you were thinking Baker -> Breadman -> Bread and Man

Either way it's got a great feel and rhythm, and the imagery and idea are spectacular, even a little (subtely more gruesome) Sweeney Todd mixed with a demon breadie - bravo!

[IceM]

It was a captivating work that was fun to read to the last. You had much lovely imagery, but most significantly, it has a lasting influence, as it directly relates to, perhaps, a common questioning of the beyond in moments of waiting.

It did feel very much like prose poetry, but so did Borges's book of sonnets that I picked up recently. Very well done Delta.

[XQZ]

I think it has a nightmarish quality to it, like when you wake up in a cold sweat and have to write it down. Its vry good and holds the attention so that you have to read it through again and again in case you missed something because there are a lot of things going on.

[Alexander III]

Yes I agree with the above, it's an weird but fascinating poem - especially the last 3 lines those were great.

[Jerrybaldy]

baking bread and the elephant man read as though they were connected all along, but you only just let us in on it. bulging dough/forehead, it is as though your analogy was already there and it wasnt. Great imagination.

[Delta40]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

[Buh4Bee]

What would happen if he put it out? I guess no one would buy the bread and it would go stale anyway. Ugly sculptures perfection for the sake of pleasing his eaters of harmoniously shaped bread. This is an interesting poem. I like your writing style when you craft poems of this nature. It reminds me of your poem about the old fortune teller.