Eatin' With Sticks - Lawson Fusao Inada

[Larry Robinson]

> Eatin' With Sticks
> 
> 
> When you think about it,
> eatin’ with sticks
> is the natural thing to do;
> 
> that is, without getting all
> sociological about it,
> it makes logical sense
> 
> to handle your food
> with these smooth extensions
> of your fleshy fingers --
> 
> that way, the hot
> is truly cool,
> bit by hit making its way
> 
> south to your mouth
> as you choose
> what you chews,
> 
> chowing down on, say,
> succulent shoots of bamboo
> with sticks of bamboo
> 
> as you come full circle
> in the ecological
> sense of things,
> 
> which makes good sense
> and shouldn’t
> bamboozle any bambino
> 
> with a lick of sense,
> a lick of taste,
> and elders demonstrating
> 
> the social, logical value
> of a world not to waste,
> slash, stab at random,
> 
> not to just scoop around
> like so many grains
> of surplus and plenty.
> 
> Moreover, sticks
> are never alone --
> as in “sticks together,”
> 
> they are paired
> like the very stereo
> parts of the body --
> 
> arms, hands, legs, feet,
> ears, eyes, molars,
> nostrils of the nose,
> 
> with all of those
> working together ricely,
> in sync, as we eat. . .
> 
> But wait -- what’s missing?
> Right -- a whole person
> does not a society make. . .
> 
> Thus, as any unshaven sage
> in a mountain hermitage
> will instruct you,
> 
> “You need a bowl, baby!”
> Which is to say,
> “You can’t go it alone!”
> 
> And even a hermit
> wouldn’t be here
> if it weren’t for
> 
> sticks and bowls,
> the whole enchilada
> of Yin and Yang,
> 
> of boys and girls,
> of what makes the world
> worth sitting down with,
> 
> wherever you are,
> blessing the bowl
> of food, community,
> 
> collective memory,
> creative heritage,
> the grains, the noodles
> 
> that wouldn’t have it
> any other way:
> “Eat us with STICKS!”

	- Lawson Fusao Inada    
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