Poem for Farideh

Dear Farideh

The light in your garden feels infused

Like the tea you serve in delicate glasses

Beneath the trellis of grape vines.

The sun reaches through bundles of green pearls

To shine on the table

And casually transform the tea

Into vials of luminous amber.

Over the course of an afternoon

I learn the pleasing combination

Of a roasted chickpea

Wrapped in raisin flesh.

I see the majesty of a rhubarb leaf

Captured in concrete

As a pathway to mindfulness.

I smell the braided perfumes

Of rosewater...bergamot...cardamom...pistachios...dates.

They stretch like a fragrant cable

Back to Iran.

I think of my family’s braid

Of sauerkraut...wurst...rye bread...chocolate...beer.

I think of all the reasons people have

For leaving one place

To make a home somewhere new.

I picture you on the plane

Gazing down at the changing landscape

Asking the stewardess again and again

Is this Saskatoon?

I picture my grandmother at the pier

Sitting on her suitcases

A child on either side of her

Waiting for my grandfather.

I think of the leaps we make

When life shakes us

And we must jump or perish.

The trust we must have

That the earth won’t roll away from us

While we’re suspended in our flight.

That it will stay still long enough

For us to land safely

And start again.