A Bread With Attitude

The Bialy is the persistent roll,
steadfast in its refusal to yield
to changing times, fast food technologies,
or half-baked ideologies.
A lean, simple dough
of long rises, short bakes
and even shorter shelf lives.
It calls to be eaten, slathered in butter,
right out of the oven.
Its robust flavour has been carried
across generations and across continents.
The bialy is the bread that says,
I will not lie down.
I will not submit without a fight.
I will not go quietly into Hitler’s night.
I will not be relegated to the books of history,
to the museums of forgotten times,
or assimilated by another culture’s ways.
I will not blend into the world
of bland flavours, inoffensive smells, or wimpy bodies.
I have a personality that calls to the world
with a savoury, sweet smell of onions
that fills the kitchen, spreads through the house,
and jumps up on the tongue and shouts,
I am alive.