I hold the weight of flour sacks
Dust settles on my cypress backs
Baker kneads the midnight dough
Yeast blooms where the fireflies go
Bayou breathes beneath my boards
Spanish moss records chords
She waits for crust to turn gold brown
Night baker claims her wooden crown
Cast iron skillet warms my grain
Biscuits rise like morning rain
Crickets fiddle in the reeds
Flute joins where the melody leads
Water laps at pilings deep
Cello wakes while world asleep
Violin climbs the cypress high
Fiddle sings a lullaby
Bayou breathes beneath my boards
Spanish moss records chords
She waits for crust to turn gold brown
Night baker claims her wooden crown
Flour handprints mark my skin
Hymns hum where the saints begin
Choir voice cracks on highest note
Porch remembers what she wrote
Dawn paints water rose and gray
Baker packs the day away
Loaves cool on my splintered shelf
I keep the warmth she baked herself
Bayou breathes beneath my boards
Spanish moss records chords
She waits for crust to turn gold brown
Night baker claims her wooden crown
Cypress holds the final hymn
Flour dust on morning limb