By Naomi Shihab Nye
We are looking for your laugh.
Trying to find the path back to it
between drooping trees.
Listening for your rustle
under bamboo,
brush of fig leaves,
feeling your step
on the porch,
natty lantana blossom
poked into your buttonhole.
We see your raised face
at both sides of a day.
How was it, you lived around
the edge of everything we did,
seasons of ailing & growing,
mountains of laundry & mail?
I am looking for you first & last
in the dark places,
when I turn my face away
from headlines at dawn,
dropping the rolled news to the floor.
Your rumble of calm
poured into me.
There was the saving grace
of care, from day one, the watching
and being watched
from every corner of the yard.
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My kids are back in College Park for the second semester of the school year. We spent the morning getting organized and packing, then went out to lunch at Minerva, which had stewed chick peas, spicy lentils, tomato curry paneer, and tandoori eggs on the buffet -- my four favorite Indian foods! Then we packed up the van and went to College Park, where we brought Adam to his dorm, took Daniel food shopping (plus got toilet paper for ourselves for the impending snowstorm), and dropped Daniel off at his apartment.
We were so full from lunch that we did not have a big dinner. Instead we went for a walk around the neighborhood to look for bunnies (there were two between our cul-de-sac and the next). Afterwards, we had a quiet evening watching the US Figure Skating Championships -- not something that would be a favorite activity for either of our sons, but pleased our cats, who snugged and tried to steal our popcorn. Here are some photos of the adorable kangaroos and wallabies lounging in the sun at the Richmond Metro Zoo last fall:
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