Who chose the name begining with
the letter Z for my mother? And who
chose to name my real mother after
the crescent moon? Growing up
as they did during the war, they lived
during a time of great frugality; and so
the extravagance of their names is both
amazement and mystery. They thought
of wildflowers and rising moons during
a season of bayonets and stones, funerals
and stale bread. They dreamt of cities rebuilt
from labyrinths traced by snails. Mother zephyr,
mother moon, teach us how to train our eyes
to what lasts, even as we inhabit these ruins.
Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.
