© 2014 by Ellen S. Jaffe

Ellen S. Jaffe grew up in New York City, came to Canada in 1979, and lives in Hamilton, ON. Her second poetry collection, Skinny-Dipping with the Muse, will be published by Guernica Editions in 2014.  She has also written a young adult novel and a book on writing, Writing Your Way. Ellen teaches creative writing workshops for children and adults.  Her work has been translated into French and Finnish and has been published in various journals and anthologies, including Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam War Era (Seraphim Editions, 2008).  She would like to sing, though she was always told to “mouth the words.”

My Mother Flew Like a Kite

Several years before her death,
one windy evening, just past Halloween,
my mother began to fly.
We were going to see a play, Wuthering Heights,
storms of nature and the heart.
As we walked from dinner to theatre,
a gust of wind swept her off her feet.
My friend and I tried to hold her
down
but she flew like a kite
into the night sky, delicate bird
with black cloth wings. She rose higher,
higher,
good witch crossing the face of the moon, bright bones
lighter than air now –  into the universe’s dark matter,
dark energy giving her power
until she slowly
floated back to earth,
alighting on the wet pavement,
face shining as she caught her breath.

It took her several years
to try again                                                                                           
and fly away.
___________________________

Published in Tower Poetry, Winter 2013-2014, Vol. 62, No. 2