Poem - “Migration”
This year Marie drives back and forth
from the hospital room of her dying friend
to the office of the adoption agency.
–
I bet sometimes she doesn’t know
what threshold she is waiting at –
–
the hand of her sick friend, hot with fever;
the theoretical baby just a lot of paperwork so far.
–
But next year she might be standing by a grave,
wearing black with a splash of
banana vomit on it,
–
the little girl just starting to say Sesame Street
and Cappuccino latte grande Mommy.
The future ours for a while to hold, with its heaviness –
–
and hope moving from one location to another
like the holy ghost that it is.
–
“Migration” from What Narcissism Means to Me. Copyright © 2003 by Tony Hoagland. Reprinted with permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, MN, graywolfpress.org.