East meet East

煮豆燃萁

煮豆燃豆萁，
豆在釜中泣。
本是同根生，
相煎何太急。

~曹植

***

CHICKPEA TO COOK

A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the pot where it’s being boiled.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

The cook knocks him down with the ladle.

“Don’t you try to jump out.
You think I’m torturing you.
I’m giving you flavor,
so you can mix with spices and rice
and be the lovely vitality of a human being.

Remember when you drank rain in the garden. That was for this.

~ Sufi Poem