Portside

Dear Loan Director

By Esther Kamkar

You called to ask why it is essential

for me to keep the house,

now that my children are grown.

Please forgive me my head

full of closets, windows, and doorknobs

I'm in love with the lemons on the tree.

When I said, this place you are watching

on TV, in Paris, I have been there

my children were amazed.

I told them:

I was a human being

even before I was your mother.

Forgive me my head full

of saffron, garlic, and parsley

and every good thing passing through this house.

Esther Kamkar lives in northern California. Of her poetry, she writes: “What was is over with and what is, the poems tell us.” See more at http://www.estherkamkar.com/