If They Are Not Ripe, Then They Are Revolting

By Ndaba Sibanda

If They Are Not Ripe, Then They Are Revolting

The letter B bellows between
the words beans and ballot.

Can you think of anything else
that possibly ties the two terms?

My heart oozes happy, hale and hearty wishes
for divine, delightful and palatable beans.

For positive beans are not just beautiful,
they hold a distinctive, delicious and dietary value.

Now and then I discern time-saving beans
in cute cans, not in disorderly, dull, dirty bins.

I mean those that come fully cooked and set,
lovely and lip-smacking flavors, you reheat and eat.

I hear most beans cook in forty-five minutes;
dynamic, dried beans will cook in about 15 minutes.

Of course, all this depends on the variety,
and that's ok until they run into a revulsion.

Yes, have you heard of raw, rough and rude beans
that take an eternity, a lifetime to cook or soften?

Hunger taking a toll on you, you try to soak
or bring them to boil, but they don’t roll or season.

In tears and want, you start counting the years:
forty-one, forty-two, forty-three…hell, give us a break!

Isn’t a waste of time and tears to seek to stock up
hellish hunger in one’s pantry for forty-three years?

If you cannot cook them, how can you claim
that those inflexible seeds are edible and valuable?

Won’t you discard them into distant dustbins
as the ballot’s decay, delusions, deficits and deceits?