MATHEW J. ESTVANIC

NOW KUSH GETS HER WONDERBREAD

cocoa-buttered
elated angel
on errands for matriarch-proper
peers into my empty carriage
in hopes of glimpsing naiveté
that which queen hasn't ordained
that which dusk shards can't make a dowry
(we're inevitably married to our circumstance).

and the little girl kept riding
her bike
home
after i passed her
at the intersection -
franklin and school streets.
momma needs bread
to feed a new nation
conceived in
a backwater, pseudo-ghetto jungle
filled with
lions
who've been
swindled.