Mary Oishi's "predawn sorority"
as performed at The Concert For Peace Talks
December 5, 2004

predawn sorority

i live by myself....but not alone

i'm woken by a mother's wail half a world away

her child buried in the rubble in the bomb crater

and i cannot sleep

my dreams visited by an african grandmother/ troubled

trying to hold on/what will her AIDS-orphaned grandchildren do

without her/and i'm troubled too

and get up and worry the water into a pot of tea at two a.m.

i sip slowly on hot tears and keep company with my sisters

and pray i do not fall prey to all that passes for sanity in this world

pray that i stay madly loving without succumbing to the madness

slip my prayer around the missile trajectory to touch that

one who's on the brink

to shore her up from my kindred heart

to let her know I have picked up the soundwaves of her suffering

to offer one small respite dipped from the quiet of my night

night by myself but not alone

mary oishi, adjunct faculty, unm valencia
http://www.maryoishi.com
2 december 2004