Bread Prayer

The smell alone
is enough to make a meal—
yeasty bread
hot from the oven.
Grasp the serrated bread knife,
crack through
the heavenly browned crust.
Decorate the tablecloth
with crumbs. Slather
a thick slice with butter
and last summer’s
strawberry freezer jam.
How can you stop
slice after slice?
Yeast, wheat flour,
salt, water—
make ambrosia in a loaf.
No preservatives needed,
it disappears
slice after graceful slice.
Give us strong hands, wheat farmers,
and clean water
forever, amen.

 

 

About the Poet:
Laura L. Snyder uses a slanted profile to scratch out words in hard-back journals under Northwest trees. Find her latest writing in Claudius Speaks, Quill and Parchment, Windfall, Labletter. Recently, she had a blissful month long residency at Hypatia-in-the Woods. Laura has two chapbooks of poetry, Winged, and Witness.

 

 

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