Antithesis

The red bricks here
warm my hands and heart
even when the wind
burns them with its ice.

Community

"How
I envy Phulan
the warm
circle of our women
for the rest
of her life,"
says Shabanu,
and I understand
what she means
when I am here.

My tear falls
and you catch it
in your outstretched hand
as we live as family
with one figurative blood.


*Shabanu, Daughter of the Wind, by Suzanne Fisher Staples