Making It So by Pris Campbell

Making It So

You had gone to Alexandria from Cairo with family and were resting on the soft grass while they explored. Someone took your picture. I used my graphics program to place a day moon above you. Your daughter rode a camel that day. We wrote about everything back then— the anger that flared between your country and mine, the courtship rules, the different food we ate, our rituals, your headdress, the relative freedom of females here. You told me my fair skin could put me in danger in parts of Cairo should I ever come there. You said our friendship convinced you that all Westerners weren’t what you had thought we were. Callous warmongers. Unfeeling. You shared your Arabic love poems written for your wife. I shed tears they were so beautiful. That July you all sang happy birthday to me in Arabic and English and even blew out a candle on a cake. You said your love was encompassing.

a stray dog and cat…
waiting out the storm
under one roof

img_2555The poems of Pris Campbell have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including PoetsArtists, Rusty Truck, Bicycle Review, Chiron Review, and Outlaw Poetry Network. The Small Press has published eight collections of her poetry and Clemson University Press a collaboration with Scott Owens. When The Wolves Come After You, with Michael Parker, from Goss Publications and Squalls on the Horizon, a book of tanka, from Nixes Mate and My Southern Childhood are her most recent small press books. A former Clinical Psychologist, sailor and bicyclist until sidelined by ME/CFS in 1990, she makes her home in the Greater West Palm Beach, Florida, with her husband.

14 Replies to “Making It So by Pris Campbell”

  1. Dear friend Pris, I didn’t think of my family and myself as sympolic as you put it. Yet, you are for us all… You have helped my son’s to capture the American dream, and now my grandhouters are American citizens. Thank you Pris. Mosaad Ghoneim. Cairo, Egypt

  2. A beautiful haibun about friendship across time, space and cultures. Our world needs more of this. Mossad’s comment above adds to the importance of this story.

  3. Mark and Margaret thank you for reading and commenting.
    Mark, yep, a haibun.
    Margaret, yes, Mosaad’s comment did really add to the impact of our friendship.

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