Such a simple thing.

A doughnut; red, featureless but complex.

Circular, biconcave, disk-shaped; a deformable object

whose shape facilitates passage through the narrowest vessels.

Alone, it does nothing, but in its trillions,

in vast corpuscular battalions.

it gives us the seconds, minutes and hours of our days.

Sometimes too, will we make our own gift of this stuff.

A debit made with no thought of repayment or profit -.

the possibility of future credit is surely dividend enough.

Gathered together, we restock with tea and biscuits

or perhaps seek something stronger in the Frog and Frigate.

Previous version:

Such a simple thing.

A doughnut; red, featureless but complex.

Circular, biconcave, disk-shaped; a deformable object

whose shape facilitates passage through the narrowest vessels

in orderly corpuscular battilions.

Alone, it does nothing, but in its trillions,

it gives us the seconds, minutes and hours of our days.

Sometimes too, will we make our own gift of this stuff,

in the appropriate way.

A debit made with no thought of repayment or profit -.

the possibility of future credit is surely dividend enough.

Gathered together, we restock with tea and biscuits

Or perhaps seek something stronger in the Frog and Frigate.

Previous version:

Such a simple thing.

A doughnut; red, featureless but complex.

Circular, biconcave, disk-shaped and deformable.

Its shape facilitates  passage through the narrowest vessels

in the appropriate way.

Alone, it does nothing, but in its trillions,

it gives us the seconds, minutes and hours of our days.

Sometimes too, will we make our own gift of it,  

a debit made with no thought of repayment or profit.

The possibility of future credit is surely dividend enough.

Gathered together, we restock with tea and biscuits

Or perhaps, we leave quickly,  to seek a cheeky pint of bitter.