Life by Lisa Zaran

my father

an artist

in 1969

became a father

for the second time,

a role he accepted

reluctantly.

my mother

a nurse

with short red hair

in 1969

gave birth to a daughter

she nicknamed precious.

in 1969

at the end of september

I was born and called precious

because of my silence

and contentedness

to lay in my cradle

and watch the world

expand, too intent upon it

to sleep or cry, oh life

knowing inside

if I could only

form the words

and speak them

from my cupid lips,

from my dreambox cradle,

they would have been,

oh precious life.

Lisa Zaran is an American poet, essayist, occasional interviewer and the author of six collections. Her first book, the sometimes girl, was recently the focus of a year long translation course in Germany. She is the founder and editor of Contemporary American Voices, an online journal of poetry, which has now been approved to be used as the subject of study for a translation course in Germany.