The ultrasound reader

Dedicated to a mother...and her son.

----------------------------------------
Students huddled around a screen,
dressed in white, reflecting the color
they would like to bring to the wards:
Health, but almost impossible.
To reverse nature? To wash disease?
"Here, you see," said the professor.
"echogenic mass, possibly tumour."
Aspiring for health and whiteness,
to erase colors on ultrasounds.
I pointed the same to the mother.

"Your son will travel many places."
She stared at the ultrasound image.
Motseh: Morrocoan, she answered.
"You know, my grandmother was Arab.
She used to read in my funjan,
The way a doctor reads an ultrasound.
Im Saleem told me I would travel many places,
you and your son also will travel many places.
Maktoub."