SIGNS
The sun and moon in the sky together
were a sign. A dog stopped barking
and this warned of heartache:
the hem of a blue dress, the bright
bare feet, the family discovered in a ditch.
A man wonders if the moon
can still be written about.
A long time ago the moon was a mirror.
Men used it to decide marriages, to buy
cattle, to free captives, to dig graves.
(originally published in Hanging Loose magazine)
— Hayan Charara
Hayan Charara is the author of two poetry books The Alchemist's Diary and The Sadness of Others, an award winning children's book, The Three Lucys, and editor of Inclined to Speak, an anthology of contemporary Arab American poetry.
On Friday Hayan Charara and Fady Joudah will read their poems at The Twig Book Shop as part of Our Lady of the Lake University's Literary Festival 2013: All the World's A Stage, co-sponsored by The Twig and Gemini Ink.
Free; 6:30pm, Friday April 5, The Twig, 200 E Grayson Ste. 124, (210) 826-6411, thetwig.indiebound.com
