i'm thinking of making a toaster

that requires no heat. hear me out.

on one side imagine the need to remember

and on the other side the desire to forget.

imagine popping a bread between them.

won't it be tormented? torn? burned? toast?

of course, you'll have to make sure

the bread doesn't get selfconscious

or else imagine it might sue you for imagining it

into toasted existence, for imagining

its antikelvin womb, for imagining it could sue you.

in case it's too late and the selfconscious bread

is making a run for the court, quick, push it

into the library, and if you're extra desperate,

into the poetry section, and let it soak it all up,

butter and jam it all up, like a goodboy bread.

then if a stubborn child wants the crusts off

it will write a metaphor of the absent presence of crusts,

or when post-expiry the mould starts to gain

it will enter its garbagebin graveyard phase

or we're all godsown wheat era, and if it gets aware

of you, then it'll write an indignant indictment

and let it, for no one will read the bread's poem

and even if they do they'll think, surely, bread

is a true poet and i hate existing is too simple an interpretation

and so you'll always be safe for imagining,

in a poem, that all poems that break bread are harmless. 

~ ajay

12/5/2024