One more burst of color...

to relieve the restlessness of one's heart.

Sarah Moon

All the Difficult Hours and Minutes

BY JANE HIRSHFIELD

All the difficult hours and minutes

are like salted plums in a jar.

Wrinkled, turn steeply into themselves,

they mutter something the color of  sharkfins to the glass.

Just so, calamity turns toward calmness.

First the jar holds the umeboshi, then the rice does.