Yarrow House

The Mothers

The women trudge toward us in the photo,
shawls wrapped around their heads, hands
to their mouths, they trudge and stagger,
protected, or herded, by two men 

with rifles held ready. They trudge 
toward a border weeping.
Passage is not assured, across 
the border nor through the borderland, 

nor is safe haven. But they continue.
They are women who know how 
			to continue.

And while they continue, they mourn and wail,
and challenge the last remaining gods
to prove that reason for war exists. 
				

Published in Borderlands, Court Street Press, Seattle: 1999

Onetime reproduction for non-resale purposes permitted by the author with the following credit line:  by Judith Yarrow