American Breakfast with Cereals

I hold the word “elegant” between my fingers

trying to match it with a familiar thing.

While dipping a spoonful of cornflakes

in skim milk,

I think: milk would be fine;

yet between its whiteness and my palate

- the spoon , like a shovel,

like a tool of farm workers,

a scene

almost mythical

from old Columbia Pictures,

except for the morning prayer.



Too bad!

My fingers would look so elegant

resting the pointed pyramid

of two grateful hands

against my forehead.



© Elena Malec, California 1997