Rosaly DeMaios Roffman: When Christina Called

Here's what she said-

my son's babysitter

She said it in PRAYOTIS 

which he made up

and spoke with her 

when she came over

in her flannel shirts


She told him even then

it is not possible to sit

in a corner of Rhode Island

and have only walls to talk to


She said it would be thrilling

and powerful to have a language

that only the two of you forever know

and she said this in his language 


But she was then even too young

to know her own wisdom of saying

and speaking the way a 3 year old

would understand-- with crayons


and music and games in PRAYOTIS 

And when he was little and screamed 

because the circus in town was rained out

she then told him to wait--to please wait--


that old issue of trust in the steady gods--

that trust when it's safe and you're in bed

and you wake up to see your dad sipping tea

from a glass like your grandfather did once


She wanted to remind him I think

that we're not past telling old stories 

and while the raging goes on and on--

we need invention, the history of the world


poor world, to start over again, one two, three

Just let the gods guarantee everyone

a right to love in their own language

Go forth, sing in your PRAYOTIS she said

Let your song teach us every day 

neither to laugh at nor kill one another

Copyright 2021 Rosaly DeMaios Roffman

Rosaly DeMaios Roffman’s many books include I Want To Thank My Eyes (Tebot Bach, 2012).

Photo: Unsplash