Wednesday, August 29, 2012

"Aliya" (poem)

Written for Poetic Bloomings "memoir project."


"ALIYA"


She could not say my nickname – “Sasha,”

Could not master the shushing sound

Lots of toddlers have trouble with.


She was always different though,

Always doing things her own special way

She invented a new nickname – 


“Aliya” she called her aunt – me.

(It really is a nickname for “Alexandra,”

But she could not know that.)


So, for a few precious years “Aliya” I was,

Until she became all grown up – five years old – 

It has been “Sasha” ever since.


She is a beautiful young woman now.

Was she ever a toddler? Hard to imagine,

But to this day I treasure her childhood drawings:


A portrait of someone with curly hair,

A caption – carefully scribbled letters:

“ALIYA.” 



Live for the Love of it,
The Happy Amateur

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