The Sandwich – Mark Fleisher

Rye bread, two slices
crusted with mahogany,
flecked with caraway seeds,
spread with grainy yellow mustard
hosting silvery-skinned
oily sardines,
a purple ringlet of onion,
Swiss cheese, nutty and dense

A legacy left by Dad,
otherwise a delicacy
unseen and unmade
the gauntlet untaken
by others for only I
accept the dare

Previously published in Moments of Time (Mercury HeartLink 2014).

Mark Fleisher has published three books of poetry (with prose and photographs
included) and collaborated on a fourth. His work has appeared in numerous online and
print publications in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Kenya, Nigeria,
South Africa, and India. He received a journalism degree from Ohio University and
held reporting and editing positions in newspapers in New York and Washington, D.C.
Fleisher’s service in the United States Air Force included a year in Vietnam where he
was awarded a Bronze Star. He currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.