Salmonberries and Saag Aloo

Originally published in Alaska Women Speak and the Alaska Humanities Forum, FORUM magazine.

I feed you

smoked salmon

and saag aloo. You

devour salmonberries

from our overgrown garden

 

and your grandmother’s

chicken curry—not as spicy

as when your uncle

made it after our wedding. We sat

in a room of laughing

 

tear tracks, the chili pepper

was so strong.

One of you

has eyes the color

of silty glacier water, like

 

me. And one

has eyes the color

of moss,

gazing up at the sky

from the bottom

 

of a clear stream. Neither,

have your dad’s

bronze skin

or amber eyes.

Your baby…

Read the full poem here.