Three generations of the women in my family
sit on the spacious front porch, pouring over
souvenirs from my recent vacation in Hawai‛i.
I offer to show these women, who taught me
how to tat and embroider, the art of making flowers into leis,
something I learned on Maui.
We have no feathers, teeth, hair or shells to weave.
No plumeria, orchids or fragrant pīkake jasmine
to grace our ceremonial crowns.
I gather blooms from the alley and flower beds: fiddle head ferns,
cornflowers, daisies, black-eyed susans and clemantis.
The perfume of Kansas flowers is the dust of June.
I demonstrate the haku technique to entwine ferns and flowers
along the spine of flexible grosgrain ribbon
instead of palm fronds.
The women in Hawai‛i sing when they make leis.
We gossip about changes in the town.
The matriarchs in my family are facile
with their hands, soon the leis are finished. Such
flower circlets are gifts to honor
the recipient. We exchange our creations,
tie them gently around each other’s heads with a soft kiss
on the cheek. Like monarchs, we survey the land
as far as we can to the setting sun.
A moment of rest before we go indoors to prepare supper
and set the table. We wear our fragile crowns
until they wilt while we do the dishes.
Amy Haddad’s poems have been published in numerous journals including Janus Head, Journal of Medical Humanities, Touch, Bellevue Literary Review, Pulse, Persimmon Tree, Annals of Internal Medicine, Aji Magazine, DASH, Oberon Poetry Magazine, Rogue Agent, and Abandoned Mine. Her first chapbook, “The Geography of Kitchens” was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. Her first poetry collection, “An Otherwise Healthy Woman,” was published by Backwaters Press, 2022.
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