Poem of the Week: Kathleen O'Toole

Halim, waiting

He arrived first as a student of geology

.............in the bicentennial year.

..................................................He witnessed

the fireworks, read the Declaration and believed it.


One by one, he brought his family -- Fatima, Anas,

............Nassir. Today they are all citizens. He alone waits.


He built houses, a business, this dream. Eighteen years

...........of waiting to savor the meat he first smelled roasting

on Manhattan streets. His father's home in Baghdad

...........is in ruins. The cousins in Najaf are dead, conscripted --

His youngest son has brought the daughter of a family friend

.........to Virginia to marry. Even she will be a citizen before him.

Each time he travels home, one more letter in his file

...........for helping the war effort.

....................................Still at each airport, the pat-downs,

pull asides, manhandling -- the eyes.

..........................................................At the immigration office

they say: one more name check. One more set of fingerprints.

His wife says: now they will not give this. They need to keep him

............on this leash.

-Kathleen O'Toole

Used by permission.

Kathleen O'Toole is the author of Meanwhile and Practice, a chapbook of poems. She has combined a more than thirty-year professional life in community organizing with teaching and writing. She has taught writing at Johns Hopkins University and at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She currently works for V.O.I.C.E., an affiliate of the Industrial Areas Foundation in Northern Virginia.

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