My Mother's Eyes (Monday Poem)

by Marjorie Agosin


I

My mother's eyes
are cities
where birds 
nest
where voyages of the ill-fated
come to rest
where water is a mirror
of sung secrets.


II

My mother's eyes
are cities
of war
bearing the scars
of a barren time.
I approach them
and on the threshold of her eyes
a girl is rocking
asleep in a misty cruelty of light,
in windswept wastelands of absence.

In my mother's eyes
I also encounter myself
because into them
I slip, 
find warm solace
and live
in the cities of love.



from Whisper and Shout: Poems to Memorize edited by Patrice Vecchione, 2013, Cricket Books