In the Healer’s Room

by Andrea Potos


I felt myself carried
across wine-dark waters
as if a ship’s manifest were kept
near me, the unknown
and the known—
paternal grandmother Helen, 
a scared girl of seven coming over
from Patras; 
maternal grandmother Aristea,
an astonished bride of 19
from Piraeus, holding my 
8-month-old mother in her arms 
as the ship rose and dipped, glided
and churned along the endless
waves for weeks.  
I give thanks to the waters
that held them up to land them here,
where I may remember something
of their stories within
my body now.  


* * * * *

"In the Healer's Room" is from Andrea Potos's collection Her Joy Becomes (Fernwood Press),

Andrea Potos is the author of several poetry collections, most recently Her Joy Becomes (Fernwood Press), Marrow of Summer (Kelsay Books), Mothershell (Kelsay Books), A Stone to Carry Home (Salmon Poetry, Ireland) and Yaya's Cloth (Iris Press).  Her poems can be found widely in print and online. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.