Einstein’s Broth

by G. E. Schwartz

Einstein, who bent space-time, still balked at pots to clean:
Why waste a flame for one small egg when soup keeps heat between?
Drop shell in swirl—world within world-the white made tight by steam;
Time tends the rest; the least released completes the scheme.
So thrift of thought: spare means, clear lines, no needless art—
Let one field yield what many tools would tear apart.
The same mind curved the stars, made clocks unlearn their pace,
Found in a broth the law enough: one warmth, one space.

You matter mentoring mind, mild tutor, bright with breath,
You school us: form from field congeals, life out of death.
Star-cores simmer; suns drum light; the long equations sing;
We live inside that vast cuisine, each in everything.
Wash less, trust more; let being bear what we would force—
Mass turns to mercy, thought to thanks: love is the source.