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Today please be glad with me that only half the world is on fire, there is still enough ice in Greenland to make at least one cold and minty lemonade, and the article I published last year in Harper's on water and the West Bank (still behind a paywall alas) was just awarded a 2012 PEN Center USA award for literary journalism. (The story, however, goes on. See this by Amira Haas from the South Hebron Hills. And this on the Jordan Valley. And, on a brighter side, this, on Nabi Saleh, which I just left, but perhaps also this, less bright. Also, a very long short story of mine that was published in BOMB in 2009 has just gone up on the CultureStrike site along with a lovely little introduction by Sesshu Foster. While you are there, you will not regret checking out the poems of Lucas de Lima. Here's one:

I FLY INTO GOD’S FACE

& ASK HIM ABOUT MY DEAD BEST FRIEND

THE ALLIGATOR IS ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD WHEN I’M IN THE MIDDLE OF

THE HIGHWAY

I FEEL CONTIGUOUS WITH THE LANDSCAPE

LIKE ANY FLATTENED BIRD WHO SNEEZES BACK TO LIFE AFTER GETTING RUN

OVER BY A TRUCK

I AM LEARNING TO STRAIGHTEN MY SPINE

WHEN I WALK I WALK TOWARD LOVE FOR THE GATOR

ANY QUESTION I ASK GOD ANSWERS BY CREATING A MEADOW FILLED WITH

ORPHANED BEASTS WHO

TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER

I, LITTLE BIRD WHOSE FEATHERS ARE TARRED

WANT TO GIVE BIRTH TO A BABY GATOR

AN ALBINO

I KNOW THE COLOR OF MY BABY IS IMPORTANT

IT MATTERS WHICH SPECIES I FUCK

BUT IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT

IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT

THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE BIRD IS A BULLET’S

I SHOOT MYSELF INTO EVERYONE

WHEN I PICK SOMEONE