American Obesity

Rami Saari


“It’s definitely fabulous
and I’m simply lovin’ it,”
while wandering among you,
mountainous people of Boston,
who hop from one junk food temple to another
and make it hard for me to say
whether your bodies are more like the White Mountains
or the Blue Hills.
After the Massachusetts Indians had left behind
their peace pipes and names on the map,
they removed themselves from the atmosphere on your behalf
so that you, like elephants and donkeys, would enjoy
bubble gum ice cream too.
Therefore I scream – just like you,
with great joy, shouting,
choking and bursting with pride –
when you ask, “What is America like?”
and I answer, “It eats and eats and eats.
It’s absolutely gorgeous.”


Translated from Hebrew by Lisa Katz and published in the Israeli daily paper Ha-Aretz in 2005


SPANISH POETRY translated by Saari to Hebrew
SPANISH PROSE translated by Saari to Hebrew
Rami Saari’s page



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