Marmalade, Bread & Butter, Honey

By Isabella Soddu

This trio of poems explores big feelings through the lens of a small and nonsensical subject matter: breakfast condiments.

Marmalade 

     morning 

It’s half-past nine and you’re ready to dine 
on twenty minutes of misery 

Painted marmalade toast I watch you engrossed
in the sunny weather advisory 

Your knife a pendulum I sing a soft hum 
but your eye gives a me quiver 

Day after day I’m wasting away, 
And your silence is spreading me thinner 

    night

dirty window panes made lipstick stains 
you delight in seedy affairs  

They think you sweeter than most, marmalade toast 
you never bothered to care 

My worth served on a platter; it didn’t matter 
Am I dressed in the costumes of sinners?

How am I to cope I’m clean out of hope
when I am spread so much thinner

Bread & Butter 

Bread and butter you smiled at me           
As our hands were broken by the maple tree
Your face was dappled with blemished light   
And so we laughed together in warm delight   

My words were betrayed by lust that day,     
Maybe something inside told me not to say,    
“Bread and butter back to you my love”        
If requited, is bread and butter even enough?    

Honey 

I walked with my kitty cat umbrella 
In my world of sugar and honey
Twirling in the bee’s wax pavement 
humming echos into my world

Honey in my tea
Honey on his face
Honey on my brain

I’m stuck on honey, 
I can’t twirl on sugarcoated pavement
So I hide behind my kitty cat umbrella
An echo becomes my world

Process

This collection of poems took root after I read “Sestina” by Elizabeth Bishop and was captivated by its repetitive style. This thread of inspiration led me to the poem “Honey,” and with it, the trio of poems about heartbreak and breakfast condiments.