Poem for Wednesday and Cabin John Park

Red Brocade
By Naomi Shihab Nye

The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends
you don’t care.

Let’s go back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse.

No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world.

I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea.

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Daniel has been catching up on Pokemon Sword, so we both had a quiet morning though mine involved slightly more chores. For lunch we went out to the Original Pancake House and worked off the eggs hiking several miles on the Cabin John trail, through the park and around the ice rink and tennis courts. We stopped at Starbucks because we got thirsty from that, then came home for the rest of The Man in the High Castle.









Paul made chicken paprikash for the carnivores in the family when he got here -- he's working from home on Wednesday though he had to go to the office Tuesday. Afterward, Daniel went to take a shower while we watched The Flash (get the crisis over with already), then we all watched Emergence (get the show over with already, it jumped the shark when it turned into Mommy From Hell drama and made Jo and Emily both stereotypes).