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 
What I like with this is the tone and the unexpected.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Dan. I’m fascinated with how extraordinary the ordinary is!
LikeLike
Amen to your closing line! If only we could somehow comprehend that we DO NOT comprehend in areas where it matters. (I embrace being delusional in some areas … but not all that sure where all such tolerance applies …)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Knowing that we don’t know is key!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This one just blew me away, I didn’t know where it was headed but what a journey. Thank you Robert for this polished gem.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, D!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I really like what you shared here! We are blessed with luck and heritage! What we do with it is up to us! I liked this line;;;; The words we shape predicate a communion of aesthetics.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Dwight!
LikeLiked by 1 person
i can see why it’s been featured twice it’s an amazing poem! I love how rice means so many things.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much!
LikeLiked by 1 person
nice rice! damn though about the arsenic
LikeLiked by 1 person
A dilemma!
LikeLike