MiMi Zannino is a poet-in-residence with the Maryland State Arts Council since 1989. She also performs her one-woman historical portrayal, Emily Dickinson, Live! Among her publications for adults and children is "Keeping Memories Alive" a grief-assistance book in which children can write thoughts, draw, and add photos while expressing emotions after the death of a loved one (illustrated by Vonnie Winslow Crist).
Summer 2011
Table of Contents - Vol. VII, No. 2
Poetry Fiction Translations Reviews
MiMi Zannino
The Wake
The three-year-old scans
a room of mourners,
her eyes, dewy as
rich soil after rain,
absorbing her great-aunt
lying silent as a
plaster saint,
rosary lacing porcelain fingers—
Catholic worry-beads.
Gladiola and carnations
Roses and lilies neatly arranged
with sashes
spelling out
Mother, Sister, Grandmother
The child says:
Whispering won’t wake her.
Salty
A heap of salt
sprawls across
the kitchen floor--
all that
remains of
the tears I have shed--
you pass by
toss a pinch
on your tongue--
are you
thirsty for
more?
© MiMi Zannino
