Ducks Off Water's Back--Universe in a Grain of Rice

[Guest guest]

I asked my teacher how the world was made

And he flipped a grain of rice at me

With his cobra quick chopsticks...

"Look" he cried, waving a peacock feather

And drained his cup of Chai in one motion...

"Listen!" he demanded, when the silence grew

He pointed at the grain of rice...

"For I so loved the whirled" he recited and spun his Sufi wool, an emotional blur of wisdom...

"Idiot!" he cried, falling to the floor of Lotus Blossoms and hyacinth,

"There is your heart!" he laughed, as I helped him up...

"And there!" he cried, striking me with a bamboo cane

"Is your head" he ripped the sacred scroll in half...

"These are your truths" he opened a chest of drawers...

He dragged a helpless mouse from the bin

And shook it gently in my face...

"What does life mean?" he demanded.

I watched as he gave the mouse my grain of rice

And realized that the universe had been devoured...

And still I remained...

As my teacher

laughed and laughed...

--Zenbob