Unit 6: Selection Vocabulary 1

There was a moment when it seemed that everyone would rush at the food and we’d have to be barbaric and eat with our hands, fighting over the feast laid out on the lovely tables.

Our host did nothing, and said nothing. No one was sure what to do. Insurrection brooded in the winds.

Then your situation would be polarized. It would be you and them.

My wife and I filed out with the others, towards the gardens, in the sumptuous grounds of that magnificent estate.

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.

The course required a certain background, a background she didn’t have. So she floundered, she and the other African students, the two Turkish girls, and the men from Brunei.

‘But we met in Aberdeen!’ she had shrieked when this information was exchanged, giggling furiously. Collective fear had its euphoria.

All the lecturers were relaxed and urbane, in tweed jackets and polished shoes.

She wiped her forehead with her hand and said, ‘You mean I am conceited and proud?’

Standing up to go, she said flippantly, ‘Why don’t you become a Muslim then?’

Until September he had been diligent if not dedicated, summarizing chapters, outlining arguments on pads of yellow lined paper.

It astonished him, her capacity to think ahead.

During the drive back home, as the car curved along the Charles, they invariably marveled at how much food they'd bought.

They served themselves, stirring the rice with their forks, squinting as they extracted bay leaves and cloves from the stew.

Shukumar had stepped out of her way, watching as she moved methodically from room to room.