Moon and evening star do their
slow tambourine dance to praise
this universe. The purpose of
every gathering is discovered:
to recognize beauty and love
what’s beautiful. “Once it was
like that, now it’s like this,”
the saying goes around town, and
serious consequences too. Men
and women turn their faces to the
wall in grief. They lose appetite.

Then they start eating the fire of
pleasure, as camels chew pungent
grass for the sake of their souls…

Rumi, from “Bowls of food”