PORTRAIT OF A LOAF OF BREAD by Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali

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Look back to the rolling fields 

waving gold-topped wheat stalks 

mowed by the reaper's scythe, 

bundled into sheaves 

carted to the mill 

and ground into flour.

Kneaded into mountains of dough

to be churned by rollers

and spat into pans as red hot

as Satan's cauldron.

Brought to the café,

warmly wrapped in cellophane, 

by 'Eat Fresh Bread' bakery van;

for the waiting cook 

to slice and toast

to butter and to marmalade 

for the food-bedecked breakfast table.

While the labourer

with fingers caked with 

wet cement of a builder's scaffold 

mauls a hunk and a cold drink 

and licks his lips and laughs 

'Man can live on bread alone.'