Sally DeJesus
Nest Egg
A baker’s dozen doesn’t make this cake
stand up inside my oven mind
hot with fear overbaked
my tendency to beat myself
I can’t escape.
Today again I rise to reason
out the night sweats over broken eggs
grinding teeth
how much will we need to keep us safe?
I count blessings
I count money
nest egg folds into weighing out a sticky mix
where cookies crumble into milky ways
layered over spinning earth
another breath
I am saved
as I stir.
—Submitted on 05/20/2020
Sally DeJesus facilitates writing workshops in New York City homeless shelters and Crisis Respite Centers with grant support from Poets & Writers, Community Access, and Citizens for NYC through Poetry Speaks for Us. Her poems have appeared in River & South Review, Manhattan Linear, Metropolitan Review, and other journals, as well as in anthologies including POSTmortem (Mad Gleam Press, 2016).
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