Tofu Soup

Winter’s cold fingers

Icily reach for my heart

but Tofu Soup prevails. 

 

Recently freed from the confines of homework, my roommates and I took the opportunity to try something new. We went to a Korean restaurant that specialized in Tofu Soup. This was a sensory experience unlike any I’ve ever had before. The menus were in Korean, the soup was served in stone bowls at boiling temperatures. We received raw eggs to crack into the soup, seasoned squashes, bean sprouts and fried sardines were served as sides. Not only was it an array of color, the every flavor was positively sumptuous and although the weather outside was cool, our bellies and hearts were warm.  

 

Note: I realize that haiku’s have a Japanese origin, it merely was the form that best suited the subject. 

 

Sea Shells

Why do we stoop down to pick up sea shells;

Or bits of ocean glass, empty and dead

Occupant free, luminous little cells 

From which all life’s brilliant spark has fled?

Fragments of toil, beloved, belabored,

These tiny homes, unwilled to heirs, picked up

And hauled to the nest of some jaybird

To clutter a window sill or front step,

Are more of a reminder than treasure,

Arbitrary until some thought seeps in, 

There lies their value, not in base pleasure,

But in the recollection of man’s sin

And the promise which binds up broken hearts

Makes a mosaic of fragmented parts.