Certainly an oak, a squirrel is exactly not right

For they are about me

The great rivers, the endless ocean are about me

The one thing that has decidedly forgotten me:

my mother

sitting in nylons

straight tweed skirt

she has no thought that relates to her daughter

This has never been a poem

This is an old loose tooth in a gummy mouth

Look, mommy, I say

The palm tree has tilted toward me

The giraffe bends its head to my hand of peanuts

She stares into empty space

Void, I whisper, tell her about me,

she will listen to you

I continue to search: stones are mine, old breezes,

screen doors, bread, sand, cashiers in groceries

If I continue long enough, I’ll go to the end of the earth

The Chinese will give me tea and say forget it

That one thing that is not yours

Will give you your life

∞

From the Fall 2014 issue of Inquiring Mind (Vol. 31, No. 1)

© 2014 Natalie Goldberg

Used by permission of the poet.