Legume

by Lauren Ho
Art by Amanda Zhu
Issue: Nostos (Winter 2019)

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I have never 

(for the very sake of my ethos) 

imagined buying a tin of slim-

y legumes;

 

I much prefer beans 

when whole;

the sum of its parts

must equal its whole—

especially in the case of beans!

 

I,

1. tear the brown bag
2. soak
3. sprout
4. boil
5. salt

and optimally digest 

without due process!

 

Yet,

at the end of the cooking process,

tinned beans are dumped, 

“vatted,” 

and sprinkled into those commercial cylinders

(which sprung into existence with efficacious Rooseveltian Conservatism,

Only falling with semblant Clintonian centrism)

—a miracle to my mother!

 

How-

ever

my mother’s views on the political endeavors of beans—

and among-other-seed carrying tin can products—

may-

sway

I will not purchase them! 

 

Why???

I certainly don’t know, 

but, 

truly, 

for her,

it is a matter of: 

not apologizing for the beans!