English

LETTER TO FELLOW WOMEN

Dear woman

are you spreading yourself

out on the floor as a playmat

for that little, long-silenced girl in you

to play and become

the fountain head of your joy

splashing and purging you off

the thick dust you didn’t need?

Dear woman

are you planting your feet

in the forest of your dreams

stretching arms for your fingers

to alchemize into fireflies

enough to illumine your garden

and make ash of the axe holders?

Dear woman

are you growing flowers on your tongue

and loudspeakers on your ears

to be velvety soft inside

and to bounce back all you are told

in the nooks of books and world

tailored to fit not your size?

Dear woman

are you measuring your fragility

by stone

and density by petals?

In short, dear fellow woman,

are you

already becoming

your own resourceful man?

UNPRETENTIOUS THINGS

what about surrendering yourself to unpretentious

things like the chair in the corner that invites you to

sit down and lean on its back when you are tired.

look at that gape-mouthed spoon and the pot-bellied glass

thirsting for your touch, even the palms of your hands tend

to cup into the well of blessing for you. and, wow, what’s more

promising than the sun behind the curtain in your window.

it’s peeping in and almost touching your toe. there is wood too

on the hearth to warm you. the generosity of broken things is

alomost always unconditional.they give to you beyond themselves. and

this is why i am given to believing that the world is not half bad

in moments of someone saying to someone ‘you can do it’,

‘i am happy for you’, ‘it will get better’

Translated by the poet