Invitation to Mom

(After Mirna Stone)

If I can bring you back again
it would be on a day like this when the sky
opens wide to the water         
pelicans perch on fishing boats
and lego-like container ships navigate 
the Panama Canal

And I would bring you to my rooftop
and tell you THIS 
is what I love, this view, this horizon
you've never seen
this papaye sunrise
this breeze that nudges me
corrals the clouds

And I would offer you a hammock swing
woven by Emberra
here     I would say     is my life
and this is the hymn I sing 

Here in this troposphere
on this bridge between calm and stormy seas
this bridge between continents
where once saber-tooth tigers and now monarchs migrate
the sky holds every emotion ever felt
holds the sun when she is overwhelmed
keeps the moon like a promise

And if you told me
you could, you should, I would
laugh and take your hand, invite you to dance
I would take the lead

Here I give you latitude
the grace of an ever-changing horizon
birds who know their way
and each new day,  gratitude

Mary Pecaut is a multi-genre writer, living in Panama City, Panama. Her poems, short stories and creative non-fiction have been published internationally in VietNam, Switzerland and the USA. Winner of the Swiss GWG Literary Prize for Poetry (2015), 2nd place GWG Prize – Memoir (2016) short-listed for the FISH Poetry Prize ( 2013) and FISH Memoir Prize (2017), Mary facilitates workshops on Writing for Wellness and Well-being as well as Compassionate Integrity Training workshops for the United Nations, NGOs, and individuals. Mary believes that literature and poetry in particular, can change the world. To that end, she initiated the Poemanate Project in Casco Viejo at the beginning of the Global Covid Pandemic.

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