Naomi Shihab Nye Quotes

Making A Fist
For The First Time, On The Road North Of Tampico,
I Felt The Life Sliding Out Of Me,
a Drum In The Desert, Harder And Harder To Hear.
I Was Seven, I Lay In The Car
watching Palm Trees Swirl A Sickening Pattern
Past The Glass.
My Stomach Was A Melon Split Wide Inside My Skin.
"How Do You Know If You Are Going To Die?"
I Begged My Mother.
We Had Been Traveling For Days.
With Strange Confidence She Answered,
"When You Can No Longer Make A Fist."
Years Later I Smile To Think Of That Journey,
the Borders We Must Cross Separately,
stamped With Our Unanswerable Woes.
I Who Did Not Die, Who Am Still Living,
still Lying In The Backseat Behind All My Questions,
clenching And Opening One Small Hand.

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