Garden Variety
torn down sonnet, rebuilt
Once the debris of Palestinian homes
is cleared, the settlers will install an ark
in a landscaped garden. Automatized
couples—deer, sheep, camels, and elephants—
are lined up to board the vessel. Debate
rages about zebras, tigers. Stripes have
visual appeal, their pelts against limestone
hills. What’s at stake is authenticity.
Did the Lord require seven of every
animal, or seven categories,
in which zebra is a kind of horse, cats
might be tigers? Authenticity will
be king in the modern-day Biblical
amusement park. How else will the far-flung
faithful be persuaded to feel, to be
transported back to ancient times, to let
go the transient light, vermeil promise
of this world for the gardens of the Lord?
Noah was also instructed to bring
seven pairs of birds on board, among them
peregrines and returnees. More raging
ensues about Heaven and its checkpoints,
its native inhabitants, their plumage,
their songs, migration patterns, appetites,
the authors of their preferred translations.
Maqluba
The congressman began his remarks to a room of refugees and their children who had invited him to share their national dish after the most recent massacre with ultimately then ran his tongue across his front teeth there is a special relationship then a slight twitch of his chin and increased activity all around his mouth. Look and his left hand flew up like a shield as he jammed his pinkie fingernail beneath his top lip and excavated the gum line. I get it from behind his hand. Several of the elders leaned forward in their chairs to decipher his muffled pronouncements. Here’s what I will say emphasis on will so that the room was now focused on what he wouldn’t say then finally a moment of audible relief as the shard of almond was dislodged, restoring peace to canine and incisor. Gracious in victory, he placed it ever so gently in his palm. His words dropped off as he examined it, and for a moment it was just the congressman and the almond in the room. When an elder cleared his throat and snapped him out of his reverie, he looked up at his hosts and around the table and at the collapsing dome of fragrant rice, eggplant, and chicken at its center, and he remembered to offer the traditional greeting you and I can agree the best hope is a return to negotiations.
