Don't Go Too Far Out Poem by Eli Spivakovsky

My mother smooths and braids my hair again,
dropping to her knees so she can be at my height
And I'm dressed as a bird, with 6 feathers stuck to my top
And my sister is dressed as a poodle
We're watching cartoons
Astro-boy saving the orphaned pink little elephant

She reads me a book on carousels
and she tells me the only difference
between it and a merry-go-round is
that carousels are counter-clockwise
they take you back in time
And she dreams of going back
returning to Honolulu
with it's warm rain and frozen yogurt and
King Kameameah no longer dead now
honored by his citizens, draped in colourful lei

But we do go to Jerusalem
where stars and asterisks unburden themselves
praying with us in a sublime prayer
that twists to the sky
and is unravelled by the heavenly emissaries
step by step as we walk back
My mother saying, ''It's easier to walk there than leave,
but I suppose it's meant to be that way'

Do we have enough time to see Japan
The cherry blossoms have closed their branches anyway
And who can bear to just watch the sakura fall
into a blizzard when they die without seeing them
first bursting through
I told her it was called 'hanafubuki',
I didn't expect it to happen to her

Every year we went to see the tulips
as they make their tremendous debut
pink ones the colour of lips,
yellow ones the colour of butter,
black ones like ebony
(and I realised the black ones are onyx and that rhymes with calyx
which is part of the flower. I know you would like that)

where is she hiding?
Is she wrapped in a coat of novas?
Is she circling me from the ever-last
Is she in an ethereality?

She looked like Joni Mitchell
she bought me her album
and'River' came on her radio
and she called me to hear it
'Oh, I wish I had a River I could skate away on'
I wish we both had

Regardless, she should be back for the Light Festival
there is an illuminated panda bear there
celebrating under a glowing rainbow
there are lanterns dressed as penguins
inside an improvised igloo
The Chinese astrology signs are all there
a herd of white elephants
a 3 layered castle the colour of berries
let's use them as a torch
and run
run
run
out of this decree, until the angels have forgotten us
until the one that carries it out is no longer sure where he should be
and the forest will hide us and keep it secret
and I can be a child again with you fussing with my hair

They're using acrostic poetry on her headstone
using her name
Quickly, quickly, it's been a year since and she's still so close
stay close to me
don't go too far out, like you said,
when we swam with my sisters in the sea
'Don't go too far out'.