///
Mirador
Randolyn Zinn
Your eyes were brown like my grandmother's wherein
I watched the faces of my entire family shuffle past
………..
like a deck of cards or video transmission from space,
choppy and with time delays. Relatives I'd only seen
………..
in photos pasted in old albums showed up as you
batted your lashes, then others, born before the camera
………..
yet clearly bearing the family resemblance: an El Greco
duke in doublet, a young Vandal girl crossing the Strait
………..
of Gibraltar, a Visigoth shepherd in rough furs, even
a dark-haired Roman with wide smile carrying wheat
………..
sheaves bound for his Emperor. I kissed your two fringed
almond lids and danced like a bayadére on Persian carpet,
………..
arms lifted, in time with your oud, before settling back
on your wide-striped couch when I heard the generations whisper
………..
that we are all related.
//
