Pamela L. Laskin
Shared Room: A ghazal
To Elissa, 64
You sixteen and me eighteen
we shared a room
college and its chaos
inside our room
graduation, jobs, a wedding
in bigger rooms
after came the babies
no longer room
for reams of conversation
or quiet rooms
marriage, sometimes children
found us in ruins
secrets kept in vaults
locked in a room
again, we open house
to our heart’s room
today another sorrow
invades our room
together we can climb
in our shared room.
Pamela L. Laskin is a lecturer in the English Department at The City College, where she directs The Poetry Outreach Center. She is the published author of five books of poetry, several picture books and three young adult novels, Why No Goodbye (Leapfrog Press, 2019), the latest. Ronit And Jamil, a Palestinian/Israeli novel in verse was published by Harper Collins in 2017. Atmosphere Press will be publishing The Lost Language Of Crazy in 2021.