Tied With A Square Knot Poem by Lois Read

A Continent and an ocean away
Nigerian mothers, heads wrapped
in bright print scarves
wail and howl in a sea of grief
for their kidnapped girls.

I cannot imagine such loss.
My daughters, granddaughters, great-granddaughters
were with me yesterday
visiting, laughing, family together.
Yet the face of the mother in the green head-scarf

is somehow my face
her anguish mine as well
her impotence and anger and frustration
connects me to her
with a double square knot

that will not be undone
until unspeakable acts
like the one that snatched her daughter
cease to happen, and women
no longer walk in fear.