Strawberries and Cream
We ate strawberries and cream from
tooth-bright porcelain dishes
so white
I didn’t notice
the broken pieces.
The blood dropped,
clotted cold in the cream
and I went hot,
white, afraid I might vomit.
I showed the waitress my bloody tongue,
she brought a cool damp cloth.
You carried on eating.
~ Ernestine Lahey
Ernestine Lahey is a Nova Scotian now living in the Netherlands where she teaches linguistics and literary stylistics at the Roosevelt Academy, Middelburg.
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