For Mrs. Driver

She greets me:
as salaam alaikum...
They say when she left
the soprano chair was left empty
On a search for herself
she came back
Rabbiah Al-Haneef...
She found the mosque
and made her pilgrimage
never knowing how we yearned for her at Christmas
And us never knowing how she yearned for us on Sundays
and we all never expressed
how we missed her soprano.
It seemed some Sundays
birds sang on Carol's piano
after she prayed to the east
her silence would bless the cathedral
and never knowing
a mothers pain from a daughters change
i continuously begged for permission
to sit with her in the back pew
though I knowing her garb wasnt normal
my grandmother knew
Sneaking a lemon drop in my hand
i would shut up.
then
my age never permit me to understand
what i do now
but our lives changed
when she left
A certain emptiness in my mother
that never forgives a man for kidnapping
her sister.
The mecca is not the promised land
Heaven used to be 10 blocks away
a village used to raise me
i used to be able to wear shoes
and exchange gifts in your home
and then we would only drive by to say hello
and then one last time to say goodbye.
And while he screamed Rabbiah into the heavens
Asking allah why
showing the world his pain
we cried Sandy in our hearts..
our village huddled around whispering
trying to hold one another up.
Why was she the last one left
people say
she died trying to wrap herself in the garment
that kept her in the back of the church...
Her modesty weighed heavier than her sense of survival
and my mother cried
and the men tried to blame someone
for this tradgedy
and to this day
no one speaks of
Watts Towers
No one speaks of the memories made
We just go through life
like none of it ever happened
But you can tell...
When she left
the village stopped raising its children
and mourned
and discussed round table
in rooms where the windows and doors stayed open.
And my tears didnt fall then
but on the fourth of every april
since the fourth day after christmas
that year
i catch a stare in my mother eyes
that lets me know all is not forgotten
and my eyes fill up.
"you look more like her everyday you know
even david says it"
and a tear falls
and i breathe to the wind
walaikum as salaam