______________—for Roxana, leaving Kigali early
Because your mother is dying,
because my mother
has died,
and each new moon is a withered
womb;
because we have ceased
our prayers.
Because I have my mother’s smile
and wear my mother’s rings,
because you have your mother’s hair,
will soon wear your mother’s rings.
Tonight, the scattered lights come on—
starlight, streetlight, firelight, fireflies, fires
in these hills;
because the two-lane blacktop rises
then falls, wrapping us breathless in shrouds
of night:
_____—oh, Mama—
because there is only the call, no response.
Because she is distant, the moon
and we have learned to navigate
the dark because
she is gone.
.
.
.
.
* Note: a black moon is the second new moon within a month
