THE MUSIC OF OUR DAILY LIVES

by Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard

The leaves on the birch tree

are singing in the wind, a melody

with its own rise and fall of notes,

and in the distance a child's voice at play

reminds us to live in the moment.

There are so many different melodies

in our lives, the lies that are tailored

to divert attention and turn our minds

to smoke, with right and wrong

continually changing their notes,

without any transparency of words

in speeches. There are so many different

melodies in our lives, a mother's reassuring,

voice, the harsh words that wound us,

for we all carry wounds, like the Somali boy

who was threatened with deportation

and trekked for days to Canada, carrying

the voices of his parents who were

slaughtered in Somali, his fatigue making him

collapse on the frozen ground,

until a Canadian border guard lifted him

up in his arms, and assured him that he could stay

-- the music in the cosmos of our hearts,

that uplifts us, and cannot be silenced.

* * * * *

Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard is the author of 9 poetry books two of which have won awards, as well as a number of non-fiction books on women and human rights, (Revolutionizing Motherhood; the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) human rights, social justice, illness and grief. She is a former professor of Political Science and Poetry, and currently a Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Studies Program Brandeis U.