Sugar
by Jan Ball

  1. Breakfast buffet abundance
  2. in floral blue chair Lyon,
  3. France: blanc mange with
  4. a blue lake of blueberry juice,
  5. miniature croissant like
  6. Islamic moons, brioche
  7. and pan au chocolat plus a
  8. resident chef who prepares
  9. eggs my way in this chicken
  10. rich city as we experienced
  11. last night Bouchon Lyonnaise
  12. starting with salad that had
  13. a poached egg above frisee.
  1. Another sugar feast, Joan’s
  2. daughter’s wedding in
  3. Canandaigua, New York
  4. after the upstate set dinner-
  5. a dessert room, Alladin’s
  6. treasure, faceted sugar
  7. beneath the lights of a Finger
  8. Lakes Vineyard and voila!
  9. profiteroles, linzer torte,
  10. apple pie ala mode, brownies,
  11. mousse, crème brulee, squares,
  12. rectangles of sugar, circles
  13. of surprise.
  1. Last week Joan’s full figure
  2. sadly chiseled like discarding
  3. crust from a piece of pie-
  4. a double masectomy.
  5. Where are her big breasts now,
  6. Henrietta Lacked in a petri dish?
  7. She e-mails me in France that
  8. tubes drain toxins from her lymph
  9. glands, certainly like honey on
  10. the plate beneath our baklava
  11. at dinner last night.
Packingtown Review – Vol.13, Spring 2020

Jan Ball's poems appear in journals such as: ABZ, Atlanta Review, Calyx, Connecticut Review, Main Street Rag, Nimrod, and Verse Wisconsin, in Great Britain, Canada, India, Ireland and the U.S. Jan’s chapbooks accompanying spouse (2011) and Chapter of Faults (2014) and her first full-length poetry book, I Wanted to Dance with My Father (2017), were published by Finishing Line Press. When not working out, gardening at their farm or traveling, Jan and her husband like to cook for friends.

  1. Keith Dunlap
    Augustpoetry