LYN LIFSHIN
On the Day Rushing to the Metro Already a Little Late
on my Way to Ballet I Nearly Skid on Acorns, Catch Myself
I think of Malala, maybe rushing, never
wanting to think her name means "grief
stricken," as I've written a poem about
becoming what you’re called. Maybe
she was humming a song she heard once
on TV before the Taliban banned it or
was watching leaves drift from the bus
or giggling with girlfriends. Maybe
she was thinking of being a doctor and
coming back to treat young children
in her region, her swat. Or maybe she
was hoping to see a certain boy with
licorice eyes and a smile who always
made her giggle. No longer able to wear
school uniforms, told to wear plain
clothes, Malala wrote in her blog,
Instead, I decided to wear my favorite
pink dress. Maybe the last beautiful
thing she saw as the bullet entered her
mahogany curls until later she woke
up in the hospital's cone of light
98 The Paris-American
on my Way to Ballet I Nearly Skid on Acorns, Catch Myself
I think of Malala, maybe rushing, never
wanting to think her name means "grief
stricken," as I've written a poem about
becoming what you’re called. Maybe
she was humming a song she heard once
on TV before the Taliban banned it or
was watching leaves drift from the bus
or giggling with girlfriends. Maybe
she was thinking of being a doctor and
coming back to treat young children
in her region, her swat. Or maybe she
was hoping to see a certain boy with
licorice eyes and a smile who always
made her giggle. No longer able to wear
school uniforms, told to wear plain
clothes, Malala wrote in her blog,
Instead, I decided to wear my favorite
pink dress. Maybe the last beautiful
thing she saw as the bullet entered her
mahogany curls until later she woke
up in the hospital's cone of light
98 The Paris-American
Lyn Lifshin’s Another Woman Who Looks Like Me was published by Black Sparrow at David Godine October, 2006. (Also out in 2006 is her prize winning book about the famous, short lived beautiful race horse, Ruffian: The Licorice Daughter: My Year With Ruffian from Texas Review Press. Lifshin’s other recent books include Before it’s Light published winter 1999-2000 by Black Sparrow press, following their publication of Cold Comfort in 1997 and 92 Rapple from Coatism.: Lost in the Fog and Barbaro: Beyond Brokenesss and Light at the End, the Jesus Poems, Katrina, Ballet Madonnas. For other books, bio, photographs see her web site:: www.lynlifshin.com Persephone was published by Red Hen and Texas Review published Barbaro: Beyond Brokenness. Most recent books: Ballroom, All the Poets (Mostly) Who Have Touched me, Living and Dead. All True, Especially the Lies. And just out, Knife Edge & Absinthe: The Tango Poems. In Fall 2012, NYQ books will publish A Girl Goes into The Woods. Also just out: For the Roses poems after Joni Mitchell. Just published Hitchcock Hotel. Also forthcoming: Malala, secretariat: The Red Freak, the Miracle, The Tangled Alphabet: Istanbul Poems.