poem10 Jan 2021 07:02 pm
By Albert Anker – Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft, SIK-ISEA inventory number 93320, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70014557

Deborah L. Davitt


I never thought of bread
as a living thing, but it is,
a colony of yeast bacteria
given living space and food
in a matrix of earth-given grain,
sea-born salt, and sky-born water;
they exhale their own breath
to make their city rise,
and we freeze them in place
with fiery oven heat.
 
Little wonder then,
that the Romans brought bread
and wine for libation
to the graves of their ancestors,
and sent the living food
down feeding tubes
to the bones and ashes
to appease the hungry ghosts;
 
little wonder, too,
that on Dia de la Muerte,
people for whom that language
hangs richly on their tongues
set out living bread for the dead,
marked with bones,
or Chimalma’s tears.
 
Maybe the ghosts can sniff out
the life in it, the bacteria
still struggling to survive
their own cremation,
entombed in the rigid shape
of their own mobile grave;
maybe they have to respect
the struggle to endure,
so like their own;
maybe, like the living,
they just like the smell
of hot, buttered bread,
fresh from the oven,
and cling to the heels
as we bring the last pieces
to our churning mouths.
 
Maybe they slide lusciously
down into our gullets,
ingested with the bread
and perhaps the wine
that we pour into glasses
instead of on the grass;
maybe they become a part of us,
and leave the graveside
nestled in our hearts and bowels,
instead of lingering
to stare at futile plastic roses
left to fade in the sun.
Share

2 Responses to “Feeding the Dead”

  1. on 08 Feb 2021 at 8:13 am SFPA January 2021 Round-Up – SPECPO

    […] poem, spec, “Feeding the Dead,” Polu Texni: A Magazine of Many Arts, January 10, 2021, http://www.polutexni.com/?p=10747 […]


  2. […] “Feeding the Dead” â€¢ Deborah L. Davitt • Polu Texni, January 10 […]

Trackback this Post | Feed on comments to this Post

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.