Celia Ingrid Farber
If Things Could Be
Standing in the drizzling rain this morning
On his way to school,
My son wanted me to understand
Why he had abandoned the banana I’d asked him to eat.
“I want you to taste it Mom,” he said,
“There is something funny about it. It doesn’t taste like a real banana.”
And something in me winced imperceptibly,
To think of the child at this crossroad,
No longer a child,
Discovering how things are quietly altered,
In this enveloping ash—this will that is not our own,
To become not, instead of to become, or be.
He is always right. He has not begun to lie.
And it is this that crushes me,
To not be able to show him
Anything real,
Except the tears I choke back,
Over the things I taught him to hope for.
The wonder is gone from his eyes,
And he expects nothing much.
Will there ever be a girl,
Who summons back rain,
Or shows him a secret trail,
they never found?
Where things could be,
just be.
On his way to school,
My son wanted me to understand
Why he had abandoned the banana I’d asked him to eat.
“I want you to taste it Mom,” he said,
“There is something funny about it. It doesn’t taste like a real banana.”
And something in me winced imperceptibly,
To think of the child at this crossroad,
No longer a child,
Discovering how things are quietly altered,
In this enveloping ash—this will that is not our own,
To become not, instead of to become, or be.
He is always right. He has not begun to lie.
And it is this that crushes me,
To not be able to show him
Anything real,
Except the tears I choke back,
Over the things I taught him to hope for.
The wonder is gone from his eyes,
And he expects nothing much.
Will there ever be a girl,
Who summons back rain,
Or shows him a secret trail,
they never found?
Where things could be,
just be.
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Comments (1)
Your son is right
Here's a passage from Italy for the Gourmet Traveler by Fred Plotkin, in his glowing tribute to Trieste in the Friuli:
"You will notice that bananas in Italy taste better than those sold in the United States. The reason is that bananas sold in Italy are not picked green and then gassed to ripen. Instead, bananas in Italy usually arrive from Africa full of the flavor that only older Americans remember. "
Q.E.D., Jeremy:)
R. A. Davis
"You will notice that bananas in Italy taste better than those sold in the United States. The reason is that bananas sold in Italy are not picked green and then gassed to ripen. Instead, bananas in Italy usually arrive from Africa full of the flavor that only older Americans remember. "
Q.E.D., Jeremy:)
R. A. Davis
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January 08, 2010
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