We couldn’t get our special wine
(And Pharaoh said, “Not me, not mine”).

We’re not the people to complain,
But at that very moment, rain—

As in some awful movie—fell
In solid sheets, vacation hell!

I’d never seen a thicker flood
Of first-born deaths, and frogs, and blood.

The awning was insanely battered,
The couple on the beach side spattered—

Their ruined anniversary!
Just a bad joke, it seems to me;

And us, without our special wine
(And Pharaoh said, “Not me, not mine”).

Sarah Ruden has published several books, including, most recently, The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible and a new translation of Augustine’s Confessions.

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Published in the September 9, 2016 issue: View Contents

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