Bread + Roses

Our lives shall not be sweetened 

From birth until life closes 

Hearts starve as well as bodies 

Give us bread, but give us roses

Bread & Roses, Judy Collins

The old man at the grocery store used to laugh with no humor. ”Bread and circuses,” he’d say—feed the people and you can control them. On a hot night’s fire escape, she placed like tarot cards three objects: a book of James Oppenheim’s poetry, a weathered guitar, and a single red rose. As kitchen windows betrayed the sounds of women, toiling in the thousands, baking tomorrow’s bread, she came upon a more beautiful idea.

Notes

Top - Fresh baguette, sweet orange, familiar warmth

Middle - Red rose petals

Base - Cocoa, nutmeg, labdanum