Wonderbread

By Alfred Corn b. 1943 Alfred Corn

Loaf after loaf, in several sizes,

and never does it not look fresh,

as though its insides weren’t moist

or warm crust not the kind that spices

a room with the plump aroma of toast.

Found on the table; among shadows

next to the kitchen phone; dispatched

FedEx (without return address, though).

Someone, possibly more than one

person, loves me. Well then, who?

Amazing that bread should be so weightless,

down-light when handled, as a me

dying to taste it takes a slice.

Which lasts just long enough to reach

my mouth, but then, at the first bite,

Nothing! Nothing but air, thin air ....

Oh. One more loaf of wonderbread,

only a pun for bread, seductive

visually, but you could starve.

Get rid of it, throw it in the river—

Beyond which, grain fields. Future food for the just

and the unjust, those who love, and do not love.

Source: Present (1997)

Biography

Born in rural Bainbridge, Georgia, Alfred Corn studied French literature at both Emory University, where he earned a BA, and Columbia University, where he earned an MA. He traveled to France on a Fulbright Scholarship and has taught widely across the United States and in Britain. Corn is the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry, including Tables (2013), Contradictions (2002), and Stake: Selected Poems, 1972–1992 . . .

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