March 20, 2002


In a teahouse along the Darband / Sarband trail. I have not written for some days. With exploring the different hiking trails, getting up ultra early every few days, and the lateness of the wedding night I wore myself out completely and spent most of one day sleeping and eating lightly.

Since the wedding Maryam reiterated her idea that I join them in Bandar e Abbas (Sam’s hometown in the far south on the Persian Gulf where they will visit for only two days). Following this a series of phone calls between her mother Lili Joon and my aunt Dokhi Joon which as revealed to me by Dokhi say the plan is fraught with complications (ticket availability, me having to stay in an expensive hotel, coordinating everything) In my opinion Dokhi Joon is holding in a lot of generalized frustration that is just looking for an outlet. That may be distorting the facts somewhat as they are related to me through her.

At the wedding I met two fun-looking people named Anehseh and Sepantaw, evidently both some sort of cousin. To me Sepantaw looked like a stylishly brave fellow and reminded me of Chad Broughton. Anehseh arrived at the marriage ceremony in a bunny-esque black dress and sported what looked to be a nose ring.

At the ceremony I also met for the first time as an adult Reza Goharian, my mother’s cousin – a wonderfully irreverent fifty-something bachelor raconteur. He disagreed that Anehseh was sporting a nose ring insisting it must be a stick-on. To resolve things he captured her attention and asked directly if there was a hole there or no – he turned out to be right and she turned out to be a sort of atypical multilingual well-travelled Iranian girl who entertained everyone at night’s end with some firey guitar playing and songs. In the course of the evening I met her brother who was the first Iranian I had met since arriving in this country who was anything but gracious and charming. May God grant him self confidence and serenity. Talking with both Sepantaw and Anehseh I had half-jokingly elbowed my way into their Iranian New Year's holiday plans to visit the Caspian. Their response was warm end emphatic but it has been more than four days now and I have heard nothing from them.

Dokhi Joon has been growing ever more comfortable with my journeying out alone in half-day episodes. I even went up one day to Tochal Ski area via telecabin and hiking (an amazing telecabin in that it leaves from right in the city and takes you up into the mountains to 4000 meters where there is skiing possible until July).

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My aunt in Tehran had lovebirds, one died
She head its song and said “good morning, my sweeties!”
The garden was filled with birdsong
I put the single lovebird’s cage on the balcony to taste the air
It turned its head and huddled against the mirror.

All the birds are my birds and we live in the same cage,
Of stars and air.
Outward limitations, inner freedom.