5 January, 2019
Photograph in which children are throwing rice at your wedding dress
Maybe they are paper airplanes, or goosenecks made from linen napkins,
clappers taken from every bell within fifty miles. I imagine that, when you
gathered your train, to get into the car, streamered with tin cans that rattled
newlywed the whole way home, grains fell from the hand-stitched fabric
with a hush.
I feed you a spoonful of rice that’s been soaking in broth. You look down
at the bowl. You say what a beautiful ceremony, and even though I wasn’t
a thought yet, (and am now one forgotten), I look down at the floor with you,
littered with a rain of white, and wait for the birds to come.