Bear 241

Meet Cahide - In honor of an Unimportant Woman in Ephesus, Turkey

An Unimportant Woman – Cahide, Ephesus

Early morning sunshine rises

 above the dusty street to Ephesus;

Poppies nod from the ruins of the ancient town.

Cahide -  peddler, widow, toothless, without a proper home,

Gums her bread in silent prayer.

Soft and silken, unraveled from a winter shawl,

An endless thread runs smooth between her fingers.

Metal needles clank the rhythm of her labor.

Men in fancy travel gear pass the peasant woman,

Not seeing her, not paying much attention to her tattered tent,

They chat about the tension dividing East and West. 

About violence, and death, and children suffering from hunger.

Cahide retreats into the darkness of her shelter,

Questioning the balance of the world.

“They wage wars and I knit teddy bears!”