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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Poem of the Week: Grace Cavalieri

Verities

Maybe she had dementia,

the old lady in the woolen hat,

I don't know, but she

stopped short in the middle of the aisle,

when her son shouted, PUT THAT BACK.

Clutching a small bag of chips -

like a newborn against her chest,

like a prayer,

like something she owned -
her face collapsed,

Please, but no sound came except,

PUT IT BACK! NOW! PUT IT BACK!

This was Christmas Eve, not that it matters;

Why even embellish a story like that.

I can only tell you I walked behind her

as she walked behind her son,

until I could no longer watch,

yet there was something about

her lopsided hat, her lowered head

that made me sure

no matter what happened next,

she would not put it back.

-Grace Cavalieri

Used by permission.

Grace Cavalieri is the author of several books of poetry and 23 produced plays. She founded and still produces/hosts public radio's "The Poet and the Poem," in its 34th year, now from the Library of Congress. New Poems: Millie's Sunshine Tiki Villas, 2011. New play: "Anna Nicole: Blonde Ambition" opens 2011.

Cavalieri was a featured poet at Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness 2008.

Please feel free to forward Split This Rock Poem of the
Week widely. We just ask you to include all of the information in this email, including this request. Thanks!

Split This Rock
www.splitthisrock.org
info@splitthisrock.org
202-787-5210