​POETRY  -  
          With a Theme of Time 

                     "Thoughts of you mingled with the ocher sand"

                               Photo courtesy of
                                                                    Kathryn Santana Goldman                            

Moroccan Mirage

Kathryn Santana Goldman

Dear Hank, 
I remembered today is your 78th birthday
while driving across the dunes in Morocco.
Thoughts of you mingled with the ocher sand
when I came upon crumbling adobe homes.
The bricks made of palm leaves and sand,
built by semi-nomadic people.

Your mirage image stood beside
the adobe home your parents owned
in Walnut Creek,
the one you lived in before
and after, they were gone---
and Easter Sunday egg hunts
on the lawn, with our cousins
Cliff, Dorothy, and Joey,
before they returned to stardust--

decades before you went to Vietnam, 
before agent orange,
the chemo, radiation, and clinical trials. 
I wrote every day to keep you alive,
cherished your Mekong Delta letters.
We never talked about the redacted parts. 

Let’s celebrate here in Casablanca!
Eat lamb tagine, drink mint tea, 
and talk about all the things left unsaid.

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​A native of San Francisco, Kathryn Santana Goldman’s interest in poetry began when she was working in ICU as a registered nurse. She used this practice to process the variety of stressful scenarios experienced. Over the years, she has continued to experiment with different types of writing such as short stories and plays. As an avid traveler, Kathryn has become skilled at capturing photographs about the diversity she encounters. Three years ago, she began to combine her love of photography with her writing by using the images she captures as seeds for her poems. She continues to explore new ways to use these two art forms to share her experience with family and friends.

Other works in this issue:
Poetry:
​Kintsugi Friendship

Things to Do When You Don't Want to Leave

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