Smorgasbord

along the Moroccan highway
I stopped by an olive tree to pray
for the sake of the tree:
I prayed for rain
for the sake of me:
I prayed for something else
dry trunk against a wet face

life is like a smorgasbord
such an abundance of things
we don't know where to begin

the olive tree still had some leaves
those little stains of green
made the barren brown around
look more obscene

a little boy came up to me, wanting to sell wild thyme
for a minute, I pretended he was mine

he looked at me with grown up eyes
saying that thyme hardly costs a dime
but no money can take back time

I asked the boy about his age
he said it was the same
amount of years that Marocco had been without rain

life is like a smorgasbord
so much of bread and cheese and meat
and nothing of what we really need

the very same day
my period came