Bread by Amado Hernandez He had been imprisoned for so many years, time was a chain around his neck knotted up in the windings of his life. A piece of bread and a can of broth are left at the door by the guard, he grabs them with dirty hands. When the wretched man is about to swallow, the tear-soaked bread drops, rubbing against the bruise in his heart. He remembers why he was imprisoned: he stole a box of crackers because his sick child was groaning with hunger. Trying to get away from the fist of the law, he killed his pursuer— and never saw his little girl again! Now life wears away wearily, though now every day he is given the bread that might have saved his child, who died of hunger.