Reminders

Artur Rutkowski on Unsplash

Some images are original,
Primary, like colours.

I think of yeast, its smell
Of sour earth and parables,
And of a home somewhere,
Even if your own home
Has never smelled of rising bread.

This is often invoked,
The bread winner,
Our bread and butter,
The breaking of bread together,
Or the bread of life.

These are the essential metaphors.
Also the soil which I knead, which works
Under my fingernails like dirty flour.
It’s the source, the beginnings
Of seed and wheat, the place
Life rises from.

When have not
Kneaded bread
Or combed our fingers
In soil?

These are reminders of
What we are and
what we are not,
Of what our nature
Cannot escape.