Grand Opening

Grand Opening

The new bakery opens.
They hang a red banner
beneath the awning,
Grand Opening Today!

Two weeks later, the sign
still dangles, a half-smile
spanning the storefront.
No cars in the parking lot.

One month, two months,
a season later. The sign
screams about the grand
opening. It’s happening,

the ovens clutch matter
within themselves,
transforming it. Cakes
and bread fill the cases.

Here in this bakery
is hope, bread held
by real human hands,
boxes of yet-to-be folded

boxes stacked in the back.
Customers come in, buy
wedges of cake, brownies,
cookies shaped like flowers.

The owners look out
through the front window.
The bottom of the red sign
hovers in their field of vision.

They cannot cut it down.
They worry that the world
will not notice what they do
if they don’t point to it.