Lori Desrosiers’ poetry books are The Philosopher’s Daughter, (Salmon Poetry, 2013), a chapbook, Inner Sky (Glass Lyre Press), and a new full-length book of poems, Sometimes I Hear the Clock Speak (Salmon Poetry, 2016). Her poems have appeared in New Millenium Review, Contemporary American Voices, Best Indie Lit New England, Blue Fifth Review, Pirene’s Fountain, The Mom Egg, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish-American Poetry and many other journals and anthologies. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She edits Naugatuck River Review, a journal of narrative poetry. She teaches Literature and Composition at Westfield State University and Holyoke Community College, and Poetry in the Interdisciplinary Studies program for the Lesley University MFA graduate program.
Salt
Nobody puts their children on a boat unless the water is safer than the land
– Warsan Shire
We have forgotten how
our mothers left their fathers’ lands
crossed uneven planking
onto vessels of doubt.
Suffered salt water, heat
and loneliness
in bruised pursuit
of promises
stored like seeds beneath
sore, weathered feet
calloused on that long walk
from shore to shore.
They believed the sea
would heal them
from ravages of war
or deluge of hunger.
We their children
ignore the documents
forged in congresses
argued in assemblies
call new immigrants
criminals and job-stealers
make them flee to other lands
despite their families waiting
like our mothers’ mothers
waited to take their daughters
in their arms
to hold them again.
Instead, children’s bodies
wash up on a Turkish beach
a family rejected
by mounds of Canadian red tape.