what is the meaning of this poem?

- Marshall

George Macbeth

It occurred to Marshall

that if he were a vegetable, he’d

be a bean. Not

one of your thin, stringy

green beans, or your

dry, marbly

Burlotti beans. No, he'd be

a broad bean,

a rich, nutritious,

meaningful bean,

alert for advantages,

inquisitive with potatoes,

mixing with every kind

and condition of vegetable,

and a good friend

to meat and lager. Yes, he'd

leap from his huge

rough pod with a loud

popping sound

into the pot: always

in hot water

and out of it with a soft

heart inside

his horny carapace. He'd

carry the whole

world's hunger on

his broad shoulders, green

with best butter

or brown with gravy. And if

some starving Indian saw this

flesh bleeding

when the gas was turned on

or the knife went in

he'd accept the homage and prayers,

and become a god, and die like a man,

which, as things were, wasn't so easy.

(the poem is a metaphor if that helps)