A Tritina-Haibun by Colleen M. Farrelly

Intergenerational Meditations

I think of my grandma,
growing up poor—mother-
less—raising her daughter.

I think of my daughter—
adopted—and her grandma
doting like a mother.

I think of my mother,
caring for my grandma
and her daughter's daughter.

swaddling babe grandma's mother also a daughter (once)

~

Colleen M. Farrelly is a mathematician and haibun poet who's been exploring the universe through mathematics and physics since childhood. She's an amalgam of mystic Jewish/Catholic traditions and mathematician-philosophers like Blaise Pascal, with a deep appreciation for meditation and what she learned about public health and spiritual health from South African village shamans in the mid-2000s.