Hotel Moscow

T
O MY MOTHER
,

the artist Reviva (Lederberg) Yoffé (1924–2012),

A VALIANT AND RESOURCEFUL WOMAN

WHO FILLED MY WORLD WITH COLORS—

AND TAUGHT ME NOT TO BE AFRAID

Not I, not any one else can travel that road for you,

You must travel it for yourself.

It is not far, it is within reach,

Perhaps you have been on it since

you were born and did not know,

Perhaps it is everywhere—on water and on land.

—Walt Whitman (1819–1892), “Song of Myself,”
Leaves of Grass