text
land of enchantment
rich in history and art
stained by poverty
notes
This Senryu was prompted by this week's Earthweal prompt, which asks us to:
Sketch a landscape — it can be your personal history, or a place you inhabit now or did once.
https://earthweal.com/2022/09/19/earthweal-weekly-challenge-historys-mysteries/
I utilized the software at Pixlr.com and a free-use image by Herrema51 on Pixabay to create today's Haiga.
https://pixabay.com/photos/santa-fe-new-mexico-rugs-2367043/
I lived in Albuquerque between the ages of four and ten. New Mexico is rich in history and culture. However, the artistic splendor of a city like Santa Fe on one end of the spectrum is countered by grueling poverty on the other end.
I lived in a very poor part of Albuquerque. The house we lived in seemed a bit cobbled together and at night cockroaches the size of school buses would infest the kitchen. It still gives me the heebie jeebies thinking about it.
We didn't have a lot of money for food. We had a flock of chickens, and sometimes one of the roosters would end up becoming dinner. We ate foods such as boiled soybeans and buckwheat groats. I liked the buckwheat groats. I put butter and honey on them. If I never see another boiled soybean, it won't be too soon. Boiled soybeans are one of the foods they serve in hell.
I like other soy-based foods. I like tofu. It absorbs the flavors of other foods in a stir fry and it makes a decent substitute for eggs or chicken when making an egg or chicken salad. It isn't that my son and I don't eat eggs or chicken. We do, but they are more expensive than tofu, so we tend to save them for other dishes since tofu salad is tasty.
I like roasted and salted soybeans. They have a nice nutty flavor.
I don't loathe boiled soybeans the way I do something like liver, which makes the entire house stink and tastes like the sole of a shoe that has stomped its way through a swamp and a cow pasture. As to boiled soybeans, if you look in the Dictionary of Real Life under the word "bland," you will see a picture of a cauldron filled with boiled soybeans. Boiled soybeans are the incarnate manifestation of blandness and nothing can make them palatable. They are simply blah.
So, this is part of my story of life in a poor part of Albuquerque, a place that both shaped me and scarred me. Perhaps there will be more another time.
~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~
That stark contrast exists all over the world and blights every map.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting read. I experienced childhood poverty too. No soybeans though, they came more recently. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed the read.
ReplyDeleteIt's a paradox, growing amid such art and poverty. There's much more poverty than art here, which does reduce the scale of such wonders. Thanks for the warning on boiled soybeans, I will put them on my Do Not Serve list ...
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