Poem of the Week: Grace Cavalieri

The Wall

...........The child stands weeping.

She holds uncooked rice in one hand waiting.

She's idealized into a picture

............for American Television.

The sirens sound. The child embraces the wall, presses

her lips against stone.

............A dog outside howls its

mortality. And that is all she hears before

the vision comes to mind of a mother

she once knew.

...........The Book of Koran

lies open, naked, and torn in a broken house.

............The child cannot speak, and has

forgotten how language sounds.

Can she run across the open courtyard?

Someone may be there. Her dog? Where?

...........Grandmother? Where? Rubble flies.

That was while she stood there clutching her rice

...........in the origin of silence.

-Grace Cavalieri

Used by permission.

Grace Cavalieri is the author of several books and chapbooks of poems, and produced full-length and short- form plays. Her newest publication is Millie's Sunshine Tiki Villas (2010, Casa Menendez). Grace has founded and still produces "The Poet and the Poem" on public radio celebrating 34 years on-air, recorded at the Library of Congress. Her play "ANNA NICOLE: BLONDE GLORY" opened in NYC, 2011, Theater for the New City Dream Up Festival.

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