OBSERVING HOPE / Portrait of a Refugee

by Ave Jeanne Ventresca


his wife was not one to complain.
an ordinary person
who had crossed a border. only
 
a few dirty clothes in her bag, and a
picture in this frame, of a now
tattered childhood. but no complaining
 
did she exhale through her mouth. was it
because she didn’t understand the
new language
or because everything was
held deep below her skin, like an etching,
never to surface
from swollen clouds of this new environment. the eyes
 
of numerous children she holds in her pink
cotton pockets. keeping
them safe and warm
until she needs to see them once again.
 
she knows all birds are free here,
they are not displaced
and that thought gives her a few minutes of courage.                                               
it makes her one
who need not complain.


* * * * *

Ave Jeanne Ventresca (aka: ave jeanne) is the author of nine chapbooks of poetry that reflect social and environmental concerns. Her most recent collection, Noticing The Colors of Ordinary, was released in the summer of 2019. She edited the acclaimed literary magazine Black Bear Review, and served as publisher of Black Bear Publications for twenty years. Her award winning poetry (contemporary and Asian) has been widely published internationally within commercial and literary magazines, in print and online. Ave Jeanne was nominated for the Pushcart Prize for 2019.