National Poetry Month!

April you’ve come back to us! We here at BookPeople are so excited to once again celebrate National Poetry Month. This year we kick it off right with local award winning poet, Anis Mojgani.

Join us tonight, April 1 at 7PM for a fantastic release party for Anis’s Songs From Under the River.

Evelyn

Mother Dear’s voice sounded like the cigarette.
She was sitting in her room on her bed
when mom and I walked in.
I didn’t know where I was–
in the car I had stared out the window
looking at the sky.
The streets of New Orleans East were always so foreign to me
with their subdivided blocks and single storied houses
and people had lawns but no trees–
it was weird out here.
The neighborhoods in Uptown are made mostly of wood
these ones were made of brick.
I stood in the doorway
the hallway behind me was dark.
Mother Dear beamed that smile of hers
and told me Chile’ come here
give me a hug.
It was only when seeing younger pictures of mom
that I could see my grandmother in her face.
Spending most summers in Virginia
the blackness of her arms were strangers to me.
She held me in them.
All I could smell was the smoke of them cigarettes.
I couldn’t tell you what her first name was.

For more of Anis’s work check out his newest book, Songs From Under the River.