Panis Angelicus

By Edward Baranosky

(Hundreds of people are flocking to the Tim Horton’s doughnut shop in the small Cape Breton
town of Bras D’or to see a Christ-like image that has inexplicably appeared on an outside wall. -
-Toronto Star, September 1998)

Streetlights bleach
The sugar-sated vision
Unexpectedly flaring
Into high strangeness,
And iconic surprise.

Night owls’ roost,
Two or three hard bitten
Gathered together
In a caffeine epiphany
Uneasy insomnia.

A whisper of innocence
Threads dream time
With an Arm of Gold
And a long-forgotten mood,
Panis Angelicus.