(lemon tree, image by photosforyou, on Pixabay)
Losing Your Parents
Their loss is always news
even if you’ve written
heartfelt elegies already.
Among the stones
Virginia Woolf packed in her pockets
I bet that two of them were
for her mother and her father
before she walked carefully
to the bottom of the world.
When your parents close their eyes
two moons eclipse your sun
and a distinct absence
begins to follow you
like a timid dog
at a certain distance
trying not to scare you
but keen on its mission
the way some animals
trace the scent of grief
or stones sink
the full depth of a river
or an orphan can tell an orphan
across the room.
______________
The Girl in the Garden
for my granddaughter, Sophia
She likes to find small stones
to carry
in the spring
when the bees stand atop
long stems of weed grass
she stops and gasps
the small stones still in her hand
I think she loves the garden because
she is the tallest creature there
______________
Victoria
to Victoria, and her victory
My grandmother belonged
to the tribe that wanted peace
My brother and I wanted war
we stalked the magnolia
hunted the lemon tree
The only thing that was abrupt about her
was her silence
a precipice from which
our loud talk jumped off
to its death
She knew that patience wins sieges
so she seeded green grapes
peeled them with her fingernails
cut them in halves
and set the bowl at the main gate
to appease the barbarians
______________
Juan Pablo Mobili was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is an adopted son of the
city and state of New York. The son of a teacher and a poet, he came of age in his
native country during a tragic period of its history, when many thousands of young men
and women were unconstitutionally detained, tortured, and often murdered. His poems
carry the memory of those times, and also embrace his life in the United States, his
home for many years. What he loves, and what troubles him, as a citizen of one family
and two countries bears its presence in his poems. His writing has appeared in English
and Spanish, in Argentina, Germany, Spain, and the United States. In addition to that,
he released a chapbook of poems in collaboration with Madalasa Mobili, published by
Seranam Press, called Three Unknown Poets.