Rice
Yesterday’s rain informs me I’m born of luck and blended
strands, of hope and words forged before a common tongue emerged.
Of my first two languages only one still breathes.
The other manifests in exile, in blurred images and hummed tunes.
Rice is my staple. I eat it without regarding its English etymology,
its transition from Sanskrit to Persian and Greek, to Latin, to French.
Flooding is not mandatory in cultivation, but requires less effort.
Rice contains arsenic, yet I crave its polished grains.
In my monolingual home we still call it gohan, literally cooked rice, or meal.
The kanji character, bei, also means America.
Representing a field, it symbolizes abundance, security, and fertility.
Three rice plants tied with a rope. Many. Life’s foundation.
To understand Japan, look to rice. To appreciate breadth, think gohan.
Humility exemplified: sake consists of rice, water and mold.
The words we shape predicate a communion of aesthetics.
Miscomprehension inhabits consequence.
* * *
“Rice” has appeared here twice before, and is included in my chapbook-length work, The Circumference of Other, published in Ides, a one-volume collection of fifteen chapbooks published by Silver Birch Press and available on Amazon.com.
O at the Edges 
Much to think about, and now I want some rice. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
No rice for me today, but I am about to eat some leftover fried noodles…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yum!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was tasty!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just as rice is welcome on my plate again and again, you can keep bringing this poem to the table again and again. Today’s grabber for me is the arsenic and crave pairing … I’ll ponder that over lunch, over rice. (A weekly whopping batch ensures darn near daily servings; definitely a staple, arsenic cannot deter.)
LikeLiked by 2 people
I read somewhere that arsenic is more prevalent in rice grown where cotton was once raised. I can’t remember if that’s due to the pesticides or the cotton. I think the pesticides. But yes, rice is something I can’t entirely avoid. It’s in my DNA, so to speak.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Louisiana rice reportedly has more arsenic than rice from other areas … I buy Lundberg rice – from California. I’ve read that a little bit of arsenic is beneficial …
All I know for sure is I feel better while eating rice and after my rice fix following days off my usual eating patterns. GOOD stuff!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is my comfort food. Always has been.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow. This is awesome. Thank you.
Sent from my iPhone
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Bob.
LikeLike
Wow. This is awesome! Thank you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Such a simple grain; eliciting such a wealth of cultural knowledge and wisdom.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A world-to-be-opened lies in the simplest of things. It took me a long time to realize that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is one of the poems that wooed me to your blog… ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Carrie. I’m so glad you keep returning!
LikeLike
Rice is simple yet delicious plain and simple. I love the organic brown basmati rice for breakfast. I make a batch for the week. I never knew about the arsenic in rice.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The plain and simple is often the best!
LikeLiked by 1 person
a warm rice alone is nice 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The Silver Birch Press publication contains extraordinary writing. Your contribution to the collection, Robert, is equally awesome!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s an excellent collection, one I’m proud to have work in.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The greatest thing to eat is a giant pot of steamed rice covered in butter and soy sauce until it is a buttery pot of gloop and you strain the rice out to eat it spoonful by spoonful! That was my college late night meal (while watching episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus) after 6 to 8 hours of saxophone practice and a super hot shower. Absolute heaven! Way too many carbs for me now in one sitting, but back then boy! what a heavenly feeling!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds like a buttery pot of gloop to my liking, but like you, I can no longer eat that way. But I’ll eat rice with anything. Add a little shoyu, and I’m in heaven!
LikeLiked by 1 person
rice is heaven… rice is the divine making itself known… rice and butter (and shoyu) is a call from Amaterasu O-mikami’s herself, telling us to know her realm.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know you’ll disagree, but rice with umeboshi is heaven on earth! Along with bacon, but that’s another discussion. 🥓
LikeLiked by 1 person
rice with umeboshi… what a massive waste of rice. Now, rice with natto (itself mixed with mustard and shoyu)… yet another sign of divinity!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have yet to try natto, but will do so one of these days based upon your recommendation, which I trust despite your indifference to the finest pickle in the galaxy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Plain natto is disgusting. But mixed with a tiny bit of shoyu and mustard it transforms into a divine, delicious mess. The texture is certainly not for everyone; it feels/smells like you are eating your own snot. Natto and umeboshi are test foods for gaijin, you are dared to eat them to see if you have any subsidiary Japaneseness in you. I LOVE Kansai and dislike Kanto culture, and yet I eat natto/takoyaki like snacks, so there is always some overlap and mixing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your description is so appetizing! I’ll not try it without mustard and shoyu.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually, try it plain just to see how horrible it is…then try it with the mustard/shoyu. You’ll feel the magic!
LikeLike