* * *

On Easter morning, I took a plastic envelope of ale yeast from the refrigerator, placed it on the floor, & brought all my weight down on it to break open the enclosed packet of nutrients. Within hours, the envelope had swollen up like a sheep’s stomach with afflatus from the resurrected yeast.

Now I will feed it malt & honey & bitter herbs. It will pass this brew through its multitudinous body & turn it into beer. The empty tombs of its spent cells will drift to the bottom of the bottle’s brown sea.