Beans with Tabasco for Breakfast
I sat down to drink an espresso
on a morning of dry desert winds
and near me sat a well-known poet
less famous than I am though
and he was speaking with an intellectual or a man from the TV or the radio
they were speaking about ars poetica
about ethos pathos and epos
and science and education and
the mixing of cultures and the integration of cultures
in a very western language
and I asked myself
what the hell are these people eating for breakfast,
red beans with tabasco?
And I consoled myself that I don’t have this kind of friends.
Anyway
they completely spoiled
the taste of the coffee.
by Mois Benarroch
translation by author
from Bilingual Poems
publisher: Moben, Jerusalem, 2005