Zipporah Speaks to Min, the God of the Unmummified and Lettuce

Marc Tretin

If I die put me naked
in the dirt like they did those too poor
to have their brains pulled out
through their nose with tiny picks
and their bodies wrapped in bandages.
I love you, Min, and love your stick
that makes holes for the lettuce seeds
that grow roots that tickle the dead so hard
their muscles give up their fat
to make thick green leaves that
Egyptians can eat on their poor bread.
I would make a huge salad
since I am fast and have strong legs
but only if there was rain and sun.
But, Min, the weather speaks to you
and we sort of think like plants since
plants are the way the earth talks to people
like the way words are seeds that grow
in the hum and pictures in my brain
so when I open my mouth
out comes a sentence that means something
like a leaf with some dirt stuck on it
that dances too slowly to be seen
but wiggles itself clean in the rain.