My relationship

to food is nothing
you'd consider basic 
spiced with soy 
fish sauce sriracha
vinegar & pink
peppercorns

to vegetables is wild 
abundance in the backyard,  
green coils of sayote 
vines, rampant runners 
of sweet potato 
& frilled bean

to pain is Sister
Trinitas saying hold out
your fingers & you 
should be glad you're not 
in purgatory yet as I wait 
for the ruler to descend  
 
to love is I didn't know
it's not the end 
when there are children
it's not the end when you lose 
a house but it's the end when he 
asks you to give up yourself