predawn sorority

predawn sorority

i live by myself but not alone
i’m woken by a mother’s wail half a world away
her child buried in the rubble in the bomb crater
and i cannot sleep
my dreams visited by an african grandmother/ troubled
trying to hold on/what will her AIDS-orphaned grandchildren do
without her/and i’m troubled too
and get up and worry the water into a pot of tea at two am
i sip slowly on hot tears and keep company with my sisters
and pray i do not fall prey to all that passes for sanity in this world
pray that i stay madly loving without succumbing to the madness
slip my prayer around the missile trajectory to touch that one
who’s on the brink
to shore her up from my kindred heart
to let her know I have picked up the soundwaves of her suffering
to offer one small respite dipped from the quiet of my night
night by myself but not alone

mary oishi
2 december 2004

Published in the 2006 Nuclear Resistance Calendar