1st Place - 2016 ESME Showcase Writing Poetry Awards
Origami wishes
I’m just fine right here,
being the single mother who
hangs a pale green Spanish shawl
in the kitchen window, roses in the lace.
Here with gratitude for hands,
some of which loved me well,
others that wished to
but hesitated
as if my body were foreign soil;
the hands that will one day
find their way here and
be just fine with all of it–
the child who shares my bed,
the chaos a day can turn out,
my simplistic cooking.
Today when I made my bed I arranged
the old aqua wool blanket on top
like an origami shape, peaks and folds:
Here is where I expect you to land,
on top this wool paper airplane.
Your hand will curl around the old
brass knob, its ornate design.
The weight of that wish, in my hand,
Akesha Baron has wanted to be a writer since the third grade, and began writing poetry at age 11. She currently resides in her hometown of Seattle with her seven-year-old daughter. She writes poetry, creative nonfiction and memoir, and is a self-taught visual artist. She is a psychotherapist/Jungian analyst in training, and also a student of Aikido and Zen, all of which emphasize authentic self-expression. She always managed to live with strong healer women during her fieldwork in graduate school in anthropology and linguistics, and wonders how to make her life a shrine to that archetype.