Empty bowl

Empty bowl
                                                                            

With begging bowl, I roamed the streets,

unaware of the jewel sewn into my garment.

During my last incarceration, You baked me a cake,

folding into the sweet batter a serrated file.  

You showed me how my bowl might be used

as a chalice ... or as a ghamela

carting away stones of the wall --  by Your grace --

continuously being dismantled between us, 

scattering them in the barren fields 
from which they came.

Later, You turned the bowl upside down

to wear on my head like a crown;

like Quixote tilting with the windmills.

How great is the jewel of Your compassion!

Each moment the river deposits

it’s thick effulgence at the door of my hovel.

I have only to step outside to stake my claim.

I have only to position my bowl under the spigot of God.

O child of God, beware of the illusion of poverty.

Nothing is worth more ... or less ... than your empty bowl.

                    (Unpublished)