Man Eating

I remember being around ten at my shul's Simchas Torah celebration downstairs in the Gold Room. I watched as a kid named Jeffrey opened a bag of potato chips and started eating it. Then he finished the bag. As he was eating the last one and crumbling the bag my brother walked over. I turned to my brother and whispered conspiratorially "I saw him open and start eating that bag." I was having an existential moment. My brother replied, "so what?" Jane Kenyon would have understood.

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Man Eating

The man at the table across from mine

is eating yogurt. His eyes, following

the progress of the spoon, cross briefly

each time it nears his face. Time,

and the world with all its principalities,

might come to an end as prophesied

by the Apostle John, but what about

this man, so completely present

to the little carton, with its cool,

sweet food, which has caused no animal

to suffer, and which he is eating

with a pearl-white plastic spoon.

- Jane Kenyon