Ghazal for Emilie Parker
           (Newtown, Connecticut:  December 14, 2012)

by Carolyne Wright

 
He had been teaching her to speak Portuguese
So their last words together were in Portuguese.
 
Such simple words that morning: Thank you. Please.
I love you, Daddy. All in Portuguese.
 
Then he rode off to work, past winter trees
And she to school, smiling to herself in Portuguese.
 
She fell with her classmates, the other girls and boys,
Folding into herself like snow. No tongue, no Portuguese,
 
No hearts that walk outside their lives in fields
That winter can’t amend. No Portuguese
 
Can call them back, unspeak their parents’ grief
In English, Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, Portuguese—
 
Oh Charlotte. Daniel. Olivia. Ana. Josephine.
Dylan. Madeleine. Catherine. Chase.
 
Jesse. James. Emilie. Jack. Noah. Caroline.
Jessica. Benjamin. Avielle. Alison. Grace.


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"Ghazal for Emilie Parker" previously appeared in This Dream the World: New & Selected Poems (Lost Horse, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by Carolyne Wright

Carolyne Wright's latest books are Masquerade, a memoir in poetry (Lost Horse Press, 2021) and This Dream the World: New & Selected Poems (Lost Horse, 2017), whose title poem received a Pushcart Prize and appeared in The Best American Poetry 2009. A Seattle native who has lived and taught all over the country, and on fellowships in Chile, Brazil, India, and Bangladesh, she has 16 earlier books and anthologies of poetry, essays, and translation. A Contributing Editor for the Pushcart Prizes, Carolyne has received NEA and 4Culture grants; she is currently in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, on a 2022-2023 Fulbright grant.