Starter

I never did get into the sourdough 
starter trend, jars of fermenting 
microbes named Herman, Sophia, or 
Suzette passed down from family 
to family to friends, and now
to anyone on Etsy who's curious. 
They boast a long lineage: a thousand 
years or more, back to when wheat 
was gleaned from hillsides and plains 
in the old world. Water and flour 
mixed with bacteria from unknown 
hands continue to bring their 
backstory forward. Haven't we 
also carried the spores of what came 
before in our bones: history of old hurts, 
litany of losses? Was there ever a time 
when the body did not wear these kinds 
of heirlooms, when it knew only 
the simplicity of air and water before 
the blunt alchemy of change? To leaven
means to rise, but the body can also choose 
what bread to cultivate— feed what blooms 
into nourishment instead of sour replication.