Book Ends

Often, when I finish reading a book; I write a poem. This year, my sister-in-law convinced me to read Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns. Here's the poem I wrote after that read:

Twin Poisonous Flowers
Written after reading
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Advent 2008

Two women, Taliban in their country
Endure private warring, a husband
Daily killing innocents caught in crossfire
Twin poisonous flowers: Hope and Love
Sprout in cracked kitchen floorboards of
Their war-torn land; uprooted by empty
Womb, lover lost, present torture, misogyny,
Thwarted attempts at escape, new life

Watered by memories shared, a baby girl and
Boy, mothers born (both of them), lost love found,
A shovel coming down hard and fast and mortally
With Herculean strength cracking cranium like
Farmer's soil furrowed to find meaning after death
And success, the sprout eternally green
From a friendship long ago rooted