National Poetry Month 2017 : Kristina Drake,

Indulgence

The dough must be punched down

to rise. Conveniently,

this suits your mood, satisfies.

To be strong, forceful –
if only against single-celled organisms –
feels good.

Eventually, your knuckles hurt.
This, too, satisfies.

Later, when the dough has risen again
and been baked to fragrant bread,

you will devour your anger, swallow

the crusty, delicious warmth,

gobs of butter melting golden into its holes

the way rage seeps from your spaces,

until you are filled, pillow-soft, with release.

Crumbs catch on the breast of your sweater,

a light dusting of flour contours your mouth,

guilt-edged.

Sink back into the couch;

Don’t bother brushing it off.

Kristina Drake writes and edits in the wilderness near Hawkesbury, Ontario. Her poems have previously appeared as a Tuesday poem on Dusie; in Carte Blanche, Soliloquies and Yalla!; and as an above/ground press broadside.