1. A pot with handle patched when pots were smashed,
Its ears embellished, mother of household.

2. Her breast constricts around the locust’s throat;
Her contents, from the kindling, boil and roast.

3. She simmers at the mention of the fire—no need
For fuel—and the cook extracts her without fee.

4. If you brought her stuffed full, though cracked and old,
With a stick of wormwood, she would still unfold

5. All her contents. She is Sheikh Bekr's pot—
In the year of famine, a refuge for each lost child.