{"id":2600,"date":"2026-08-27T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T14:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2600"},"modified":"2026-09-05T21:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T21:32:17","slug":"e-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2600","title":{"rendered":"E.T."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Two UFOs land on my plate
a homemade Everything spice bagel, 
sawn in half atop an acacia carving board,
then toasted until steamy and craggy
spread with full-fat Philly cream cheese 
\u2014 the only acceptable option \u2014
and then sprinkled with additional hand-tossed E.T. spice.

Looking up at me with their googly monster eyes,
my lemuresque breakfast will be a memorable one.

A pyramidal crystal of salt 
weighs down a wave of schmear,
teasing: \"Eat Me First.\"

I take a hearty, un-Instagrammable bite 
and I chew through the boiled-then-baked bagel skin
and mash my molars deep into the spongy inner bagel marrow.
I savor the spicy oils and crunch of cracked Tellicherry peppercorns;
My front teeth skate along the smooth snowbanks of Philadelphia's best.

At last, my teeth make contact 
with the fourth pyramid of Giza: 
an epic formation of Maldon sea salt.

I crunch-crunch my way through fields of fennel, 
and sheer wisps of air-dried shallot.
Toasted sesames lodge in my gum line; 
poppy and nigella seeds soonfollow suit. 

My breakfast is in 4-D; I feel it all; I am this bagel.
E.T. \u2014 it really is everything. 





<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cE.T.,\u201d a short experience of eating a homemade E.T. spice bagel, written Thursday, August 27, 2026 poem 239 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: “Everything Spice and Bagels are Nice,”  by Diana Ludwick \u00a9 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2126,2130,200,2128,2,750,2127,2129,2220,776,551],"tags":[2604,2600,2184,2587,273,2601,2141,2609,2605,2116,2596,2591,1838,2598,2597,2594,2599,2593,2592,2588,2589,2590,2586,2608,2603,2606,2602,134,1811,2595,2585,2607],"class_list":["post-2600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-culinary","category-eating-and-drinking","category-humor","category-of-cooking","category-poems","category-pun-y-tongue-in-cheek","category-recipe-ish","category-recipes-for-life","category-runaway-imagination","category-short-form-musings","category-unserious","tag-4-d","tag-acacia","tag-august","tag-bagel","tag-breakfast","tag-carving","tag-e-t","tag-eat-me-first","tag-everything","tag-everything-spice","tag-giza","tag-googly","tag-high-summer","tag-lemuresque","tag-maldon-sea-salt","tag-marrow","tag-memorable","tag-molars","tag-monster-eyes","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-cream-cheese","tag-philly","tag-plate","tag-schmear","tag-shallot","tag-snowbanks","tag-steamy","tag-summer","tag-teeth","tag-tellicherry-peppercorns","tag-ufos","tag-un-instagrammable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2600"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2605,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2600\/revisions\/2605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}