The clock strikes 1:05 pm and I am hungry. No breakfast since morning. The guest had all my fruits yesterday evening. Why does everyone come on an empty stomach to my home? No hot shower either today. The heating engineers will come in at 4:00 pm. They were supposed to install my new heating yesterday and fix the hand shower. Guess the New Year mood is still on… Wonder what’s cooking for lunch? Better be some low-cal food with lots of veggie salad. I’m starved! Feel quite like a nomad today.

     Hungry tummies
     Make ‘feed me’ sounds
     I hear them come
     From over a pipe
     My grey pigeons!

Time for lunch! I got to get the lentils and rice from the kitchen. Will give my pigeons their favourite today: Some yellow and some green lentils with lots of rice. I’d promised them yesterday. Dad says each grain is blessed.

     On each grain of food-
     A name’s written
     That only God knows

I pray for their longevity and put out the grains. They watch from over the pipe. In the sweep of a picosecond, they’re all down on the terrace floor, busy eating, not looking up. They seem to have an invisible ‘Do Not Disturb’ tag around their neck. They eat well and make me feel like a Jewish mother. The yellow grains go first, then the green and last the white. Within fifteen minutes their lunch is over. I thank God for no poop while they ate.

     Satisfied
     Happy red eyes blink
     Giving blessings

They fly off and mom calls me for lunch. Ah food! I sit down to eat and the doorbell rings. It’s the heating engineers! The next hour goes in fixing the new heater in my bathroom. I am told to enjoy my bath and call if I need assistance with the heater. They leave. I shower quickly, say my prayers and sit for lunch. Great food today: lots of salad and vegetable soup with my favourite curry and rice.

     A hot shower-
     Makes me clean
     And more hungry!

Arigatou gozaimashita, Oh Almighty God, for this lovely day and for all you have blessed me with.