A Pea's Fate (or connotation unintended)

[Liam Shan Ballymore]

Long winters lead to unusual thoughts or ideas, and some words, no matter what the context, seem to never lose their connotations. I apologize...
Have you ever wondered, while cleaning dishes, pots and pans, or while scraping them into a compost bin, about the lives or fates of the morsels of rice, corn, beans, or even a pea left behind. You could figure on them being planted, fertilized, grown and harvested, but, maybe they were teased that only the best get to make new generations and the rest were doomed to be eaten by animals, or worse, humans. Processed, canned, packaged, crated, and transported by trucks, ships, trains, trucks, boats and trucks again, maybe they were indoctrinated along the way into believing that becoming part of the Great Circle of Life was a courageous and noble Destiny. And, maybe, they were also warned there were truly evil fates they must beware of; to be rinsed off into the sink and washed down into a sewer system or septic field was bad, but to be dumped into the garbage and winding up in a land fill, turning into methane and contributing to global warming was to be Damned. Delivered and stacked on a store behind others who, one by one, disappear until its their turn. Chosen, bought, bagged, trucked, and carried , maybe they were becoming worried or hopeful. Opened, measured, cooked, seasoned, plated, tabled, forked and raised to the Pearly Gates, I wonder if they just couldn't help but scream in aromatic voices...EAT ME!

[chez bayardee]

we wanted to grow
a giant artichoke
to lean on in times of crisis

so when the going got rough
there'd be more than enough
to pull us through the night with

then the god-head said
this is my body
eat me

and we did