<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></font><span style="font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); orphans: 2; widows: 2;">On the Steps of the Jefferson Memorial </span><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><h1 class="title vcard item otitle_14373812" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px 25px; line-height: 55px;"><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">We invent our gods</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">the <a tabindex="-1" style="color: rgb(56, 88, 152); cursor: pointer;"></a>way the Greeks did,</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">in our own image—but magnified.</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">Athena, the very mother of wisdom,</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">squabbled with Poseidon</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">like any human sibling</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">until their furious tempers</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">made the sea writhe.</span></font></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">Zeus wore a crown</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">of lightning bolts one minute,</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">a cloak of feathers the next,</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">as driven by earthly lust</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">he prepared to swoop</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">down on Leda.</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">Despite their power,</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">frailty ran through them</span></font></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">like the darker veins</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">in the marble of these temples</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">we call monuments.</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">Looking at Jefferson now,</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">I think of the language</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">he left for us to live by.</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">I think of the slave</span></font></div><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;">in the kitchen downstairs.</span></font></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; overflow-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(5, 5, 5); font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div dir="auto"><font face="Helvetica"><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 28px;"> - Linda Pastan</span></font></div></div></h1></div></div></body></html>