observing fiesta through slits
in my mask no one knows me
cares who my father is
why I have no wedding ring
“A lot like you,” I say.
For once she doesn’t
argue, asks, “Why is it wrong
to cover her brother’s body
with dust?” I search my memory-
school, classroom after dry
classroom, curled corners, frogs
undissected in the lab.
September is mine:
he stands at the edge of the cornfield
in maroon fez and dripping brocade.
Sunlit and weary, he holds up
his palm in greeting. I shudder
my bike to a stop, almost tumble
over old books stacked in the wire baske
Ruth Knafo Setton is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Road to Fez. Born in Safi, Morocco, she is the descendant of martyrs, mystics and musicians whose voices she hears as she writes. The recipient of literary fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, PEN, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and Yaddo, MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, among others, she has published fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction in many journals and anthologies.