Returning Home Late Poem by Rasma Haidri

There is girl clutter on the floor:
hairbrushes, ribbons, plastic glitter
and socks.

Don't touch a thing.
There is nothing to put away,
no such place as away to put things.

How perfectly your daughters
have left evidence of their abundance.
Leave it.

Go to them. This is the beginning
of the painting, in which they will show you
who you are.


(first published in The Pocket Parenting Guide, Puddinghouse Press,2000)