The Mouse and the Frog

A mouse and a frog meet every morning on the riverbank.

They sit in a nook of the ground and talk.

Each morning, the second they see each other,
they open easily, telling stories and dreams and secrets,
empty of any fear or suspicious holding back.

To watch, and listen to those two is to understand how,
as it’s written, sometimes when two beings come together,
Christ becomes visible.

The mouse starts laughing out a story
he hasn’t thought of in five years,
and the telling might take five years!

There’s no blocking the speech flow
river-running-all-carrying momentum that true intimacy is.
Bitterness doesn’t have a chance with those two.

The God-messenger, Khidr, touches a roasted fish.
It leaps off the grill back into the water.

Friend sits by Friend, and the tablets appear.
They read the mysteries off each others foreheads.

But one day the mouse complains,

“There are times when I want conversation
and you’re out in the water, jumping around
where you can’t hear me.

We meet at this appointed time, but the text says,
Lovers pray constantly. Once a day, once a week,
five times an hour, is not enough.
Fish like we are need the ocean around us!”

Do camel bells say, “Let’s meet back here Thursday night?”

Ridiculous! They jingle together continuously,
talking while the camel walks.

Do you pay regular visits to yourself?
Don’t argue or answer rationally.

Let us die, and dying, reply.

--Rum