This dear life....
When
was the last time you heard a “sir” or a “m’am”? If you haven’t, you aren’t living in the
south. One of the most surprising
aspects of my life in the South is the degree of politeness I encounter, even
among college students who aren’t known for possessing that quality. In my present job in a private college, I can’t
count the number of times people have held an elevator door open for me or
personally shown me to a room I can’t find.
All my NY City and Barcelona training begins to melt away. There I was the one who always found a seat
on a crowded subway. I was the one who
laughed at an American roommate in Barcelona who told me she couldn’t get off a
crowded bus. So here I am, in a sea of
politeness, not quite sure what its significance is beyond making day to day
reality just a tad more pleasant.
Of
course, not all is flowers and light. I’m
in a right to work state where highways rule and along with the Bhutanese
refugees, we’re the only ones who walk anywhere besides to take out a dog. Little by little, I will try to adapt and
find a way through it all to an understanding and acceptance of the idiosyncrasies
of life. And no matter how far I go, I
still find the people who are suffering.
Instead of the refugees I worked with in Buffalo, here I teach a young
woman whose dreams and life were shattered when her husband fell into a coma
and she has to take care of him. It
makes me wonder if I would be capable of the same. So, like before, my heart is shattered at
what life can bring.
So
here’s a poem from my second chapbook, written after acupuncture treatments I
had for an injured knee.
Kun
Between the first and second
crease of the finger
is the measurement of me,
to impose
On gristle, fat, and bone
to find where the Chi,
of the Chinese flows.
The circles on a tree trunk
mark the years of want,
the distance between yellow and black
of a bumblebee
predicts the hard winter’s arrival.
Measure to measure,
life to life
needle to pain,
past to passion.
This space
ties me to all things
alive and beating.
