I know that you think
that the wooden frame of your shoulders
was made for the hoisting of our world
I know you feel a fire in yourself
and look out over a mass of ice
wondering what good that will do to fan this flame
When the straps of your backpack broke
I know you had an image of women
in Kenya and Sierra Leone and Ghana
with water and grains and cloth high on their heads
and I could tell yours was preparing to lift
preparing to take the suffering of all your sisters
upon yourself
In the end you could only carry your backpack
and your neck ached for days afterwards
and you stepped in an icy puddle on the way home from school
and slowly that water traveled up
and the fire in you
flickered
I know you read poems in the dark
anxiously flipping through the book for something
that will speak to your soul
I know the pain of all your mothers
(Virginia, Sylvia, Anne)
wraps around you tightly
It suffocates to be the only one awake
to see the clock blinking an indefinite 4 AM
to know that your figurative pockets are full of stones
but there are no rivers nearby
I know no word has ever felt as true
as the world calamity
and the ticking of the clock invites no solace
(“Time does not bring relief you all have lied”)
But I know, too
that when the sun rises in the east tomorrow
(as it did for Edna, did for Adrienne and Audre)
you will rise with it
and put on shoes you are grateful to own
and your own mellifluous heartbeat
will keep time
as you continue to walk
—head held high, the way they held theirs—
into the foggy morning sun
Photo by Enrico Spada.
Claudia Maurino is a junior at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington MA. She has loved to write, read, and act since she was very young, and endeavors to do all three as frequently as possible —both inside and outside of school. Lately, poetry has been her main writing focus and it brings her so much joy to express emotion and puzzle out problems through art. She thinks poetry is a way to make sense of the world around you in an artistic manner that is entirely your own. She recently won a Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Key Award for her poem “Between the Honey and the Comb.”
