FEIGNED #poetry by jay

You you, what’s your name
he mimics time and time again—

in his broken english
he feigns to not remember
who I am/ a loving playfulness
only a grandpa can play this game

I sheepishly grin at the expected greeting
left to repeating the childish laughing
and answer him
knowing it’s the only language we share
in that awkward greeting we bear/ down

Oceans deep and years between
the clan intact but the clinging to bloodlines stretched
thin bare needles and pins/ what gravity we stand on
keeps us there/ hopeful in history
the fig/ the vine and earth/ tilted toward our ancestry
they left behind—

the promise of hope soiled by decline in fractured family lines
the feigning of play and fullness of love waned and waxed then withered
to dust. Moon/ sun/ earth/ bore no existence to the fig/ to the grapes
and the garden abandoned all hope/ mortal destructions placed under

time constraints. Pots and tables full empty of their plates/ a dream/ a laugh
the play/ full belly debates/ feigned a reason to disintegrate.





© Jay Mora-Shihadeh

Photo by Rad Cyrus on Unsplash