In the spirit of the arts — a poem

Ode to the Lentil

Beanie, beadie, beautiful –
Oh, you bowl of luscious lentils
Filling up my hungry soul!
We have come far –
From the shadow of butchered beef
The lights of bloodless brown emerge:
Congealed vegan heaven
The enlightened garden
The hearth of humane hearts
Our pulse guiding pulse.

Mix you with curry
Spill you in rice
Love you in all:
Glorious lentils,
From what gilded lifesource
Does your bounty emerge?
Not quite a bean
Not quite a nut
Savory identity hidden
In unworthy human name.

Lentil:
Like the season before
Christ’s death.
But promiscuous pulse!
Our mouths do not await in you
A demise of flavor, of hope
But a glorious birth, a Christmas!
Adventils is more fitting a name.
If not for the ill,
For you carry only the cancer
Of crisp fitness, overtaking all
Unhealthy earthly leanings.
Well should be your suffix,
Adventwells, a name deemed divine.
Oh, do not suffer our pallets to wait!
Awake from your green cradle!
Listen to our lips pure beckon!
Make your eternal home
In our stomachs’ lonely bed!

~Paul Sorenson