Realizing Breakfast May Only Be a Substitute for Something Else/ poem by Matthew J. Spireng

The coffee? Required, of course, but
maybe it’s a desire to return to the darkness
of night. Do you look in the cup

before that first sip? It is bottomless
as sleep. And perhaps eggs. Two
over easy, or sunny side up, atop

a mound of well-done hash.
There is much you might see
in the eggs. You might hesitate

to break the yolks, consider how it is
like raising a shade to release
the yellow light of morning sun.

Oh, your stomach grumbles a bit
before the first swallow, but maybe
it’s just asking for quiet, not

a sudden rush that will jar it
awake. Maybe it wants you to know
toast can serve many purposes

buttered or dry, dark or light. It may
remind you of flesh, living flesh,
something you don’t want to bite into.

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Matthew J. Spireng’s 2019 Sinclair Poetry Prize-winning book Good Work was published in 2020 by Evening Street Press. A 13-time Pushcart Prize nominee, he is the author of two other full-length poetry books, What Focus Is and Out of Body, winner of the 2004 Bluestem Poetry Award, and five chapbooks. Website: matthewjspireng.com.