My Life as a Bannock Loaf

By Maeengan Linklater

I enjoy being a piece of bannock
Fried in a pool of cooking oil
In a large cast iron frying pan
On the shores of an unknown lake
In North Western Ontario

I can smell
Burning pieces of driftwood
Surrounded
By a circle of granite
In a pit
Dug for fire

I am slathered
In margarine, peanut butter, strawberry jam
And speckled in ash
That runs down your forearm

As you take me into your mouth
And wash me down
With a cup of black Red Rose tea
That has been steeping for hours

I may not be healthy
But, I am yummy
And best enjoyed
At the crack of dawn
In the territory
Of the Anishinaabe people.