Not By Bread Alone

By John Blase | August 5, 2012 |

She would read the Book of Common Prayer

while straightening her curly hair

and let the LORD say what He said

then ask Him for her daily bread.

She did this almost eighteen years

through marriage’s attendant tears

til one spring day she skipped the prayer

and realized she didn’t care

that much for what she’d had of bread

and decided on dessert instead.

From that day on her hair had curls

her necklines plunged like other girls
she left her man and left her life

intent on something more than wife.

She said adieu to minivan

and took up with a younger man.

The time was rich, the sex all good,

she tossed aside each ought and should

she sucked the marrow from each day

until the young man walked away.

When asked he said he didn’t care

that much for girls with curly hair

and then regret shot through her veins,

she missed the freedom of her chains.

For seven months she’s lived alone

refusing bread she bears the stone

of losing her man and losing her life

of straightened daily breaded wife.

But just last week he called her up

and asked if they could share a cup

or two or three and maybe then

to court anew this she and him.

He shocked her with a gift of pearls

that hung quite nice beneath her curls.