Ambrosia Creamed Rice

when I was a kid
all I knew about rice was
Ambrosia Creamed Rice,
a sweet pudding in a tin can
which we sometimes had as a special treat.
when my teacher told me
that the staple diet in the Far East
was rice (and after I had stopped worrying
about the staples)
I thought she meant
they ate
Ambrosia Creamed Rice
every day.
then we looked at pictures
of coolies in conical hats
in rice paddies.

much later
at the other end of my life
I met a girl
who had worked in a rice paddy.
she taught me
what my school
and 50 years of life in the west
had failed to teach me
about
compassion,
mindfulness
and love –
but she had never heard of
Ambrosia Creamed Rice.


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