Sosi
Shahen screams my name
just once.
Falling stones echo.
Steep rock surrounds us.
I call back.
I hear nothing but Mariam crying.
Mariam in a ball
tied to his back.
I rush down in the dark.
In the dark, down is harder.
Up is climbing to weak moonbeams.
Down is stepping to emptiness
ending in the rock below.
I count each step.
Forty.
Till I find them with my ears.
They are wedged deep in a dark crack.
Mariam whimpering.
Shahen silent.
I sit on stone’s edge, stretch down my feet,
but my toes cannot touch them.
Mariam wails. Holding one end,
I drop the ball of thread down to her,
small red ball in her hand in my mind.
I sing Mama’s song till she stills.
I tear out the lining from my coat,
the seams once filled by Mama.
I wait till dawn’s light on distant branches
calls me from the summit
to find a long branch
to
reach
down
to
them
stuck
between
the
stones,
Shahen’s
head
on
stone
pillow.