The Mother Has Gone Away. Ode to Sister Gabriella, the nun of my childhood.

The Mother has gone away.

Another of the women who forged what I am, has left this world.

I weep, like everyone who has lost their mother.

I search for her in my memory, and find her there in an enchanted garden where I spent my childhood.

Ring a Ring a Roses;

oranges, tangerines and prickly pears in every direction.

Ring a Ring a Roses

The sisters’ enchanted garden, now is an abandoned forest that has buried the innocence of generations of children.

The castle of the little brown fairies has crumbled into rubble — like the rubble that buried and killed the 165 little girls of Tehran.

Oh Sister Gabriella, come back, and let us rebuild the enchanted garden.

Ring a Ring a Roses

I want to hide there with all the children of the world.

Let us hide behind the walnut tree, where the monsters disguised as saviors of humanity cannot find us.

Come back, little brown fairies, with your strawberry-shaped sweets — let their fragrance hide from us the horror of the burning flesh of children whom the powerful no longer wish to protect.

Come back, little brown fairies.

Come back…

Ring a Ring a Roses

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