Weeping, Nina

sends notes

out on the water

small droplets of sorrow

from time to time/she embeds

a smile

but mostly/she cries

wide Sargasso/seas and seas and seas of wet

what kind of world do we/imagine a child

abandoned by everything familiar

she could be Iraqi

Jamaican/Indian/Chinese

pick a culture/any culture

place her in a photograph/blue sky/green gills

grand landscapes all around

the kind of place that rich people vacation

every day

they lie/on the beach/on her heart/they press her into the floor

the core of  her is flattened

there is no winter there

except inside her

cold water gushing from all her fingers

no matter how much she wrings them/her hands

remain soaked with all the sorrows/the memories

the meat of a tale butchered by fate

faith is a thing she borrows

tentative palms placed on either side of it

she examines it/limp

faith without belief is often flaccid

in time it folds in on itself

flat on the floor it unravels

missed fortunes will come again

but miracles/not so much

so imagine her

healed

whole/small girl/child learning  the error of  weeping despair

flash the doubting flowers from your own wild hair

wear your most confident colors you

own your body/your spirit will weather much more than this

before you die

cry/but only for a time

breathe

blow the motherfucker out

make your own language

your own words are all you need

bleed

in metaphor/in jest/incognito

you are indomitable

woman/child

stop weeping/stop caterwauling/all that/endless bellyaching

your song/your story is all you have

so wield it/sling it/blade and bloody

fall

but get up

open your throat/your hands

your heart is nothing but an open thruway

drive/little girl/drive

let that wind dry your face

your fingers

your fears

feel the fury of your faith

fate ain’t got nothing on you

water ain’t nothing but water

swim/little girl/swim

put those pretty little notes in a brown bottle

and keep them sailing

out to sea