Esther Heboyan: CONVERSATION WITH MY MOTHER, LA PARISIENNE

this country
says 
           my mother
                                speaks
stripping sunless skin off
egglike tomato
a promoter tag-mouthed that is
had price-tagged
out of nowhere
olivetomato
– I can’t figure out

this tongue
says
               my mother
                                   speaks
stepping outside the doctor’s 
daily dusted office
where pain (always)
surges from somewhere
unrecognizable
as far as mind body history
and what else are concerned
 – I can’t figure out

this subway
says
                 my mother
                                     speaks
steering down its
corridors escalators 
at last platforms
in her caterpillar feet 
like little stitches
to make ends meet
and everywhere
cobaltblue summer print
– I can’t figure out

whereupon she sat down
to figure out
year after year

the cost 
of living the
price of saving
the genetics of 
suffering the significance
of dreaming

year after year
remembering 
remembering

March 2009