Doug Roy, Mountain Quarrel 3, Cut Paper
“The Niece”
The world is a curved space,
In it my niece tells me it’s a place of pain,
This place of playing pianos and stardust
This place replete with dragonflies and suffering
But she won’t tell me where it started, this pain.
The world is a desert dotted with cities
In the cities children cry, stretch out their arms,
She is one of them before we begin
The present journey. She is saying help me
Without saying help me. Does not know
Me from scratch, though I was there
In the beginning.
There will be no trust
As it is already raining hard, and the umbrellas
Are out in the curved space in the world
Of trees, mountains and roads,
Where you can hide your pain
For years, then show it on a clothesline.
I don’t know if I can walk
Steady in this curved space where her house
Teeters, where tears roll down into the street,
I don’t know if that moment can be retrieved,
That moment when you can retrieve
The past to set it right, scorch a memory,
Begin to heal.
_____________
Zeke Sanchez