idioma

idioms might be my favorite assignment.

how does one explain to someone from algiers

(just a casual sail or so across the mediterranean from athens)

what a dumbfounded american means

when he shrugs his shoulders, shakes his head,

and loudly declares “it’s all greek to me?”

they still press olives into oil there the same way

their fathers’ fathers did when my ancestor’s soles touched sand at plymouth rock.

how little time (and less patience)

we the young and restless seem to have

for these brave new pilgrims to our shores.