Lily
You look like my mother, she sweetly
said, although clearly I did not.
Lily, this seven-year old Chinese pixie
lay on the floor as I sat beside her.
We had played Ring Around the Rosie,
and Tag, You’re It.
She was so intent on my Romanian Jewish
face and blue eyes
that words of contradiction
died in my throat.
I was stunned.
Her mother was a beauty
from Taiwan, slender, long hair,
piano fingers, a baker
of cream puffs.
I was none of those things.
Lily’s warm fingers wrapped
around my thumb and my heart entwined with hers that day.
Then we dined on cream puffs and sipped
mango nectar at a table set with blue painted
plates and paper lanterns.
You look like my mother, she sweetly
said and her words echo in my heart
to this day.
Though decades have passed and continents divide us,
I open the door to memory,
And there we sit,
Lily forever that 7-year old Chinese pixie
and I next to her
with her fingers wrapped around my heart.
ROSALYN H. MARHATTA writes poems of love, loss, remembrance and inspiration. She performs them passionately at coffeehouses in NC as part of the Triad Poetry Meetup. She has performed her poetry for charity and local events as well. Her poem "Passion in the Chemistry" was published online by The Greensboro News & Record. She is a "Bones" tv show Superfan and started writing again because Booth would not kiss Brennan. She can be impatient with Hart Hanson, the show’s creator and has been patient with her, finally delivering in the 100th episode. She resides in the USA. She is on twitter as @poetic_line. Find her and open a dialog.
