Our neat nurse,

her shoes

like over-floured cakes,

separates us—

boy/girl.

We hold slips to say

we have been less

than careful.

What we hold back

is worth saying now:

this carelessness

had been our broken bread

some small hours before.

                 *

The waiting room’s light is:

             dark honey mixed

             into pasteurized cream.

or

             white fat

             cut with vinegar. 

or   (can we say it?)

       both: The honey and vinegar,

       the fat and the cream.

       The cream, fat, vinegar,

       and the honey, the honey,

       the honey, the honey.