Diana Raab

Bush Solace

                                          
When left alone in an African jungle
what snippets of our home lives
get captured in the treasure boxes
of our memories? What artifacts
call us to our past?

To see the animals roam free,
such a contrast to those
of the caged zoo visited
as a child with my father.

What carries the comforts of home?
Is it the toiletry bag packed
with familiar soaps and underwear
of the perfect size and color?

My little pocket knife
reminds me of both
my safety and danger
in the darkness
offered by this jungle
on its platter of sounds
where lions growl, hyenas howl
and vultures wait until its over.

In my final hour,
I realize that home
is different to everyone
and as much as you can pack
into a suitcase, it will never be enough
to erase the feeling of homesickness
knotted in my solar plexus.
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Visiting a New Continent

It is difficult to describe
how one feels being transported

into this world where
one feels like A Stranger

In A Strange Land, delivered
into darkness by ten planes

in as many days. If
I squeeze my eyes closed

and blink them open again,
would it feel like

a moon landing
or a shattered spaceship?

The only difference
may be that gravity still digs

its claws into my psyche,
particularly when forced

to run from the male lion
eyeing me for dinner

in this deep African night.


 

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Diana M. Raab is a poet and memoirist who teaches writing at the UCLA Writers’ Program and at conferences around the country. Her writings have appeared widely in anthologies, literary journals and magazines. She has three poetry collections. Dear Anais: My Life in Poems for You (2008) won the 2009 Next Generation Indie Award and Reader Views Annual Award for Poetry, as well as received other high honors. My Muse Undresses Me (2007) is her chapbook and her latest collection is The Guilt Gene (2009).

Her most recent book Healing With Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey (2010) is a self- help memoir which includes narrative and poetry.