A Meal

Here's a good one I read for the first time about fifteen minutes ago. So I haven't had years to meditate on it, but I've had enough time to be impressed.

Breakfast

David Wagoner

By the window, my girls are eating eggs and cereal
And reading out loud the riddles and the rules
On the back of the box. They want to enter the contest
And win something amazing. Across the street,
Half on the sidewalk and half in a driveway,
A pack of dogs surrounds a crouched, much smaller
Mammal of some kind, lunging and snapping at it,
And one part shepherd picks that bundle up
In a quick sweep of its jaws and slams it
Down on the curb in a flash of red, and a runt
Retriever trots away with it off screen.
The girls have answers to all their questions now
Except a hard one and want me to decide.




I wonder if that's a good breakfast or a bad one. And if the eggs and cereal taste better or worse for the background action.