Where the Ancestors Dwell

in shifting currents, placid

lake becoming white 

frothed, in the center

of storms insistently 

meeting the quieting land.  

I am their shoreline 

between Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey,

Spain.  Sometimes they

offer their names

sounded in fear,

their losses roiling

my interstitial seas,

sometimes they call 

like departing geese:

live your own moment

seasonal and temporary

you who are a collection 

of what has been will be,

remember us

as an awakening 

song, a prayer

of gratitude, 

a caution

close and distant

horizon and 

passing