lmoss@mcn.org 

Portrait of a Goddess

I gaze at this
Toothless wrinkled elder 
and wonder what wisdom glints in her eyes.

Is that snuff that puffs out her lower lip?
What stories do her wrinkles tell?
Her brow is furrowed,
A ring piercing her nose,
Touch of white on the bridge.
In what exotic place has she survived ?
Kathmandu? Pakistan?

Her jacket quilted, tied with a tattered cord
A wart here and there .
Gray hair thick in wisps about her face
Eyes piercing the years with memory
Wise in survival 
Strong and sturdy, if bent.

I never had a grandmother,
But she who I do not know
But for a photo
Is my measure for old.

© Copyright, 6/30/97, Laurel Moss.

Mirage of Deer

Stick legged deer
with wing ears
devouring grass quieter than a motor,
Just the tear and chomp and chew.
Stooping, stopping at a ghost sound
Onxy eyes stilled in alarm
a silent leap
delicately darting into brush
vanishing, a mirage of levitation.

© Copyright, 3/5/89, Laurel Moss.

Disappearance

I look to the sky where the ravens
Have etched their image in blue and black
I think of Jews where they have been,
Their absence etched in black and blue

The cacophony of their caw
The after silence of their screams

Go with the ravens j’accuse

© Copyright, 21 October 1999, Laurel Moss.

All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.