Cultivate a thirst

Cultivate a thirst                                                                                    
 
A starving man – so the proverb goes –
          has only one problem.
How many problems have you, O child?
 
Vain and pampered, attired in propriety,
having gotten another bellyful of the world –
 
who would drop a coin into your cup?
Never mind that your poverty is real
          beneath those fashionable robes.
 
It’s not renunciation that’s required –
but acknowledgement and confession.
 
‘Cultivate a thirst,’ Rumi said.
Lovers who burn ache for a quenching.
 
A man in a lifeboat may draw water from the sea,
          slaking his thirst, but dooming himself –
failing to satisfy the deep need within.
 
O child of God, hold out your begging bowl.
Nothing matters but love for God.
 
                              (from A Jewel in the Dust, 2011)