Working the Dough

Yeast blooms in a warm bath
like living fireworks exploding
under a flourescent sky
Powdery flour is worked until
arms burn
fingers ache
then worked again
and again
transforming
into an elastic glutenous glob
Then
it sleeps
under a blanket of quiet heat
becoming its own pillow
When it wakes,
it births five little pillows
that grow in the oven
like premies in an incubator
until,
shiny and golden,
they emerge.

Wednesday's project: Challah for Rosh Hashanah

submitted for mindlovemisery, Prompt 19, Food

Up In Smoke

tobacco barn in Calvert County, MD (source)

My daddy was a farmer

in the Old Line state

We never had much coming up

but food was on our plates

When he died, I got the land

I work it to this day

but my son, he has to leave

'cause farming just don't pay

I swear to the Lord above

I'm a peaceful man

but when they curse my family name

I've got to take a stand

It ain't my fault

if what I farm

has brought your family grief

It's part of Southern heritage

I grow tobacco leaf

Now I make an honest living

and I think it's pretty sad

The schools are teachin' children

that what I do is bad

They're tearing down tobacco barns

My family's goin' broke

My way of life is goin' to Hell

Tradition up in smoke.

traditional Southern MD tobacco barn (source)

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Dirt Farmer (Marian's Music Prompt-Tribute to Levon Helm)