A review by julienbakerstan69
Ararat by Louise Glück

4.0

“my mother wants to know
why, if i hate
family so much,
i went ahead and
had one. i don’t
answer my mother.
what i hated
was being a child,
having no choice about
the people i loved.

i don’t love my son
the way i meant to love him.
i thought i’d be
the lover of orchids who finds
red trillium growing
in the pine shade and doesn’t
touch it, doesn’t need
to possess it. what i am
is the scientist,
who comes to that flower
with a magnifying glass
and doesn’t leave, though
the sun burns a brown
circle of grass around
the flower. which is
more or less the way
my mother loved me.

i must learn
to forgive my mother,
now that i’m helpless
to spare my son.”
—brown circle