<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div class=""><div class=""></div></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A Ripe Fig</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Now that you live in my chest,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">anywhere we sit is a mountaintop.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Those other things that entice people,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">like porcelain dolls from China,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">which have made people weep for centuries,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">even those are changing now.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">What used to be pain is now a lovely bench</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">where we sit under the roses.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">A left hand has become a right.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a black wall, a window,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a cushion in a heel of a shoe,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">a leader of an assembly.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Intelligence and silence.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">What we say is poison to some,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">nourishing to others.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">What we say is a ripe fig,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">but not all birds that fly eat figs.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Jellaludin Rumi</div></div></body></html>