justwrite 10 august

having been all day within earshot hearing range of my windows the wideopen glass aside washed with sun and clouds and thunder and rain and lookedfor rainbow edges I have remembered I have learned I have come back to touch with the calling the not-far playing in the courtyard looked over but not overlooked by the geometric jumble of soviet apartment buildings they have been waiting and watching and when mama is called for the right one looks out the right window and responds in the right way and then it’s time to play again and as the thunder comes suddenwild in the mostlysunny sky there are cries for sasha and dima to come home to come inside right now and again they are called saaaasha diiiiiima maxiiiiiiiim and there ought to be scampering and eventually there is but no one wants to miss the sudden storm the chance to be caught offguard and planning to do so but obedience wins out in most cases but diiiiiima diiiiiima is the one to get wet the one with the story to tell in ten minutes when it’s all clear again they steer back toward him hanging in the doorway soaking with pride and fascination his nose drips and his mother inside on the seventh floor of building 6b shakes her head and thinks about what she’ll say to him when he comes in for dinner and time passes but the light stays the soccer is played although no one calls it that and no one knows when it’s time for dinner but the windows know and the mothers call waiting for responses and acknowledgement herding all the sunshine players toward cleaner hands and the talkingover of the day and the talking-to of what not to do and everyone can see the mistakes but safety in the courtyard wrapped in cement and apple trees we are all watching we are all calling back yes yes I hear you and I will come and here I find myself wanting to call back yes yes to the small girl’s voice who is calling maaama maama and her mama isn’t answering and she finally calls more insistently maaama leyyna remembering that her mama has a name to others even though she knows hers is the only one named mama and mama leyna has stepped from the window is taking dinner out of the oven is standing on a chair to put away too-small summer clothes in the second bedroom and soon she will step down soon she will set down the laundry the pan the otherwise and lean over the balcony and call yes yes my darling my sunshine I am here and you are safe with me I am calling you and I see you and I love you yes I am here