HAPPY
You told me that I am not happy
or not someone you think of as
happy and I sense that it came from
love or something wanting to be
near it. I struck back when what
I wish I’d said was that young
Saglana from the Taiga forest
walked five miles at minus 34
to get help for her grandma.
She was four and alone along
frozen banks. No fear of
wolves. Nothing but a tight
fist of matches, trekking tundra
and carrying fire that I see and
words turn me back
into song a throat song some
lit thing nearer is all
if you’d asked.
—from Poets Respond
March 19, 2017
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Nanci Lee: “This poem is about a young Tuva girl, Saglana Salchak, from the Taiga forest in Siberia near the Mongolian border, who traveled hours to get help for her sick grandmother. She traveled several miles across frozen tundra and river banks high with snowdrifts filled with wolves. I thought about girls in fairy tales, happiness and helplessness and how wonderfully life frustrates these boxes.” (website)
