Dreams of Sand and Bears
        (On reading Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns)

In the mountains that watch over these sands
a bear sleeps wrapped in her furry dreams.

In the bear's religion everything
will ripen when she wakes.

She has her faith: the sun
has its duty.

But what can the faith of bears do
against loaded rifles and empty kettles?

What can the dreams of mountains do
against crumbling mud shelters?

They have not stopped the man's hand
on the wooden door to the room
where two girls lie huddled—
their feet long since
hardened on sand.

They will soon be roused
for their journey

whether or not they know
their price in lamb and salt

or the names of the streets
in the city that will lose them

or how their father will find his way
in his own sleep again after
he sells his daughters—

as the mountains tremble
with the growl in their dreams.

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Copyright © 2021 Madronna Holden All rights reserved
from The Bitter Oleander
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission