Marni Fogelson
Leave the Yeast
Leave the yeast
for those who have
no garden to tend
no lover’s body to tangle with for hours
no children whose hair needs braiding.
Leave the yeast
and the flour too
for them to scatter on the countertop
and knead
until the dough hugs their fingers,
for them to magic into loaves
hollow sounding when rapped with fists
and smelling like the heads of babies
just woken from a nap.
Leave the yeast and the flour
and the idea that these days mean anything more
than the time it takes for bread to
begin and breathe and rise and bake.
There is so much waiting involved
both in baking and in anticipating our uncertain futures.
But one will eat away at us, and the other will feed us.
—Submitted on 06/08/2020
Marni Fogelson is the author of A Cello Named Pablo (CTM Classics, 2017), illustrated by Avi Katz. Her work has appeared in Appalachian Heritage, Domino, Inhabitat, and other journals. Fogelson lives in Philadelphia with her husband, two children, and a beagle mix named Sparky.
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