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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

American life in poetry

Ted Kooser U.S. Poet Laureate

There are thousands upon thousands of poems about love, many of them using predictable words, predictable rhymes. Ho-hum.

But here the Illinois poet Lisel Mueller talks about love in a totally fresh and new way, in terms of table salt.

Love Like Salt

It lies in our hands in crystals

too intricate to decipher

It goes into the skillet

without being given a second thought

It spills on the floor so fine

we step all over it

We carry a pinch behind each eyeball

It breaks out on our foreheads

We store it inside our bodies

in secret wineskins

At supper, we pass it around the table

talking of holidays and the sea.