Once upon a time,
just before leaving my flat for a few short days,
I had lentil soup for dinner,
and did the washing-up, or so I thought.
On coming back from my trip,
imagine my wonder and disbelief
on seeing a tender, green, new sprout
growing on my kitchen cloth
from the spot where I had forgotten
a single lentil.
Given just one lentil and some water,
nature generated new life,
bestowing an unexpected gift.
Such is the power of life
and the ingenuity of nature
that give you hope
even in the darkest hour,
the one preceding the dawn,
when all looks bleak and menacing.
Once upon a time,
life sprouted on a kitchen cloth,
sunny and sublime,
strong and insistent.
About the Author
Dr. Tiziana Soverino is an Italian researcher, writer and activist who lives in Dublin, Ireland. Her poems, short stories and humorous pieces have appeared in Landing Places: Immigrant Poets in Ireland (2010), Boyne Berries (2012) and Ireland’s Own (2015).
Connect with this Author: Twitter:@SoverinoTiziana LinkedIn: https://ie.linkedin.com/in/tizianasoverino
Tiziana’s words on multiculturalism: The true meaning of multiculturalism is encapsulated by Haruki Murakami, who said: “No matter how high a wall we build to keep intruders out, no matter how strictly we exclude outsiders, no matter how much we rewrite history to suit us, we just end up damaging and hurting ourselves. We have no hope against the wall: it’s too high, too dark, too cold. To fight the wall, we must join our souls together for warmth, strength. We must not let the system control us—create who we are. It is we who created the system”.