Poem by Don Krieger

Gluten Free


Spring 2020
our two-hundred
forty-fifth 
July 4th
coming.

Oil and water
salt and sugar
yeast and flour
my bread rose.

Then the outbreak –
it flattened

hoarding and bare shelves
paper rations and hardship
like so many others
have always lived.

I found nothing
but flax seed
sorghum
quinoa and teff

but I was saved
American know-how
raised my bread again –
Lamb-of-God brand
Vital Wheat Gluten

with cranberries added
and shredded flag bits.
​

Here's an A/V recording of Don reading his poem (with subtitles):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jgkp_drlmVc

Don Krieger is a biomedical researcher whose focus is the electric activity within the brain. He is author of the hybrid collection, "Discovery," and  is a 2020 Creative Nonfiction Foundation Science-as-Story Fellow. His work has appeared in American Journal of Nursing, Neurology, Seneca Review, The Asahi Shimbun, The Blue Nib, Beltway Quarterly, and others, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,  and others, and has appeared in several anthologies in both English and Farsi.

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