By Ghirmai Yohannes
Translated by Charles Cantalupo and Ghirmai Negash
In the beginning
The spirit moving
Upon the face of the waters
And in the breaking waves
Tasted salt
And I see fields of it
Drying on the shore.
We let in shallow lakes of sea
To evaporate,
And the salt
Accumulates along their edge
Thanks to the sunlight:
Crystal white,
Enough for everyone,
Harvested and sold
In every shop and on the roads:
Salt!—
In proper measure
Bringing out the taste,
The flavor and spirit
Of our food, hot or cold.
Why should pepper get
So much admiration
When salt does all the work?
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Wednesday dawned rainy, which was fine with me since the pollen count had dropped considerably during the storms over the night. I spent part of the morning plotting to hack my Kindle to change the screensaver, only to chicken out for fear of avoiding the warranty -- I don't really need dragons instead of Amazon's default pictures, do I? -- and another part watching Geoffrey Rush on last night's Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (where they had a lengthy discussion of prostate exams -- "in America they expect you to be the aggressor and push back" -- and Geoffrey teased his own nipples and discussed drinking cognac as a sleep aid on long flights). Plus there was a POTC4 clip! Though it was all Barbossa, so it's hard to get a sense of what anyone is up to but the Royal Navy (Rush says Barbossa joined because it has great retirement benefits, hee).
Adam came home carrying the first tent caterpillar of the season, and the Washington Capitals played their last game of the season (by the same team that beat the Penguins, which is just doubly annoying). We had Boba Fettucini and Wookie Cookies in honor of May the Fourth Be With You, then we watched Robert Plant and the Band of Joy on Live From the Artists Den and NOVA's "Ghosts of Machu Picchu." (I always stop resenting the Spanish invaders so much when I start seeing the mummified remains of child sacrifices, but we already know I'm a bad person this week because I cannot cope with one more fake Martin Luther King quote shoved down my throat on Facebook. I know people don't mean to be disrespectful to me as a Jew when they preach about turning the other cheek; I'm sure most of them aren't even aware of the things Bin Laden ordered his followers to do specifically to Jews, and the money and weapons he provided for them to do so, when it's easier to reduce everyone relieved to see him gone to a jingoistic hatemonger just like him.)
On a happier note, I was asked for more lemur pictures! Yay lemurs!
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