The Ritual

By Dianne Keetch Anderson

Flour:

fresh, brown,

pungent.

Water: body-warm,

measured with the

ceremonial cup.

Live,

sleeping granuals

awake, feed, grow.

Honey, oil, salt,

ancient meanings

found anew

each generation.

Mixing soft dough:

push, pull,

hands deep

into tradition.

Working shoulders

bent over

a thousand years.

Palms molding deep,

touching other

mighty hands.

Nurture, roll:

ancient link

to sustain, strengthen,

knead

generations.