panis

i think about the first time someone made bread. why they made bread. how they made bread. who was the first scientist, this alchemist of water and oil and heat? i wonder if they were curious. i wonder if they were hungry. i wonder if they themself were not hungry, but they had children who were and for that they invented a miracle. i think about a cold cave and a ring of people around a fire and bread passed from one hand to the next, one bite after another. i think about what bread must have meant back then. companion: com and panis. friend, partner, consort. one who breaks bread with another. one for whom you will go hungry to feed. 

today, my mother cuts warmed focaccia into four pieces, drizzled with oil and salt. i lift it to my mouth, pray, and begin to eat.