2.

Learning        patience                 (for Glenna Berry)
learning Russia
mysterious & sad.

A fledgling-fox
the firstborn
strongest

flexes to fly.
But the background
a tapestry sea and sky.

       Learning to lose the firstborn
       is like learning to walk thru water to God learning loss forever:
       despite steel thistles in soles & palms in lifelong harness

       But then visiting hours are short for children on the ward:
What sterner lesson?

       patience        mysterious, sad,
       Russian: braiding the air two ways, learning Cyrillic alphabet (like little cat-purrs),
Magyar eyes:

       transformed Amish woman, going in Indigo shawl, oxblood chukkas:
       Nebraska-born:
       inured to seasons, your thimble-children Slavic, nun, a prairie woman playing down
agony & passion.