and so now... a new poem. check out barbara ras' "bite every sorrow". it is really an amazing colection of workthat is a lesson in how to stretch your imagery to the unexpected place...


The sadness of migration (after Barbara Ras)

is when you realize you’ve finally spent
more years in your adopted country
than you’ve lived in your own And the click
of that turnover makes you wonder
while you ride a crowded underground
train with children who sell chocolates
for non-existent basketball teams
whether this means the chalkboard
of equations of all the things
that make you you is slowly coming
erased If maybe the first time
you finally carved a crude cone
out of a wedge of pine
drove a nail through the center
and wound twine around its crooked spine
to make a top never really happened
If the trill of a home made kite on the wind
razor blade zwill searching the tails of
the other pretty birds in the air
would waft itself completely out
of the memory of all the things you held dear

One day you’re a citizen of something small
but yours altogether and the hot asphalt
that binds you there the accent the jostling
taxis signaling for their chance at full meals
for their children the music and colorful costumes
the street corner ciphers mimicking
the air of something foreign your mother’s calling
through a window all in one flight
become part of your past even the faces
of your best friends fade whether in love
or disregard and in five hours
all that is strange becomes merely different
you learn to love in another language
or with your arms tucked in
and all of a sudden you belong to no-one
and no-where belongs to you