The year 2010 is fading. As I begin to count the blessings of this year (and they are plenty), I am simultaneously preparing a to-do list for the new decade. A resolution that is forgotten year in, year out in the effort to meet the level of each day's need is to stop and be still. And in the stillness compose a verse or what seems to look like one. Here is a verse, one of a small fistful I did this year, a memory retrieved of a child now fully grown.
Fourth-Generation Brookside Baby
For Kimi whom I named Katha Mayumi
she moved into my lola's house
precisely on her seventh birthday
ready to begin first grade
in a new city.
free of anxiety
she strode to school day out day in
in jeans & t-shirt
standing out at flag ceremony
because all other girl children
came in standard white blouse
& red pleated skirt.
she thought it not unusual
when these same girls
yelled "katha!"
with hints of panic
in their voices
when bullies barged
into their space.
she dealt with them
by just turning up
in trademark scruffy jeans
& well-worn tee
my guess is the boys
couldn't figure out
what she was
in their rightful scheme of things.
eventually she shed off the tomboy stance
explored the world of dolls,
shoved the line of barbies on her kid sister's side
shoved the line of barbies on her kid sister's side
& gave her family of trolls
the affection they deserve,
the affection they deserve,
graduating them with honors
atop the upright piano.
she commenced a life beyond
her adopted city,
adapting to wearying commutes,
shrugging off trolls in the workplace
as easily as the bullies
who have no place
in her scheme of things.
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