Two-String Green Beans
How darn beautiful you are
naked
And I am standing here baffled by my ignorance:
How did I not know where you
came from and what yours
look like where
your roots are!?
Haven’t I known you since before time?
Your skin golden-brown, dressed to perfection,
tossed with almonds and raisins, a hint of cinnamon
You smell
like what I didn’t know is
heaven.
All my previous unknown dreams
We found love like old friends at
other people’s Thanksgiving dinner
as we devoured the leftovers like a feast
made by (a) magic(ian).
We met in a casserole
deep-ish perplex
by that deep-dish pyrex perhaps
I used to know you peeled
and packaged in the
produce isle
I never knew I wanted you
in a dating profile
just raw
always nah! to that
medium half-(bare)-assed unsoliciteD nude-nik
Beans, please…Next!!
Can you pass the beans, please?
{ummm….[in hypno]
…I dunno, can I?……}
I was not ready to fall
so hard on such short notice
for you down the question of beans or no beans
what the texture of love is
or the nature of g-d - or both
I’ve known you a lifetime and a half
and yet never seen you in this light
midnight old city vibe
rations.
We never had beef
after 10 pm - or nine
so we could rise and shine
in one peace
I wonder
between us
who was
hiding
or was the other of us blinded-but who was who
–You chose nature over nurture in the hopes for both
–and I–ignorant of what you need for growth or
where or into whom you need to bloom,
fell from grace
for a moment there
hey…I chose me and us over the bean (her/him/them/?) in the hopes for us all
and more
About the Author
Narges Ada Shafeghati (she,her) grew up in Germany and has lived in Hamburg, DC, Boston, and Heidelberg. During her MTS program (STH ’20) she studied at Boston University, Harvard Divinity School, and Hebrew College. A poet and person of multi-religious belonging she is currently a PhD candidate in Jewish Studies and aspires to be a mentsh.
buprophet.wordpress.com 