Mothers
                               		mothers day 1991



I picked you both the finest bouquets
yours from the wild growth of our land
and yours from the glass cooler at Safeway

I set them carefully in thin-necked vases
on tansu and coffee table in front of you
and you commented on their subtle qualities

the hibiscus and yellow cattails yours
the six fragrant orange roses yours
and we talked, embraced, and parted

Driving, I am thinking of the gesture
how sadness and despair disappear
in the moment of fresh arrival

my banal charade of intimacy clouding
the distance of horrifying history
that you two swear never to reconcile


To be caught in your own story
as if impersonating a tragic figure
flawed by a single accidental choice

like the bittersweet flowers cut today
languishing sadly in the thin water
so that between you life may flow