Ancestors

Poem by Sha Michele

ANCESTORS

At the intersection of love, time, wind, and blood

I convene a pantheon of shimmering ancestors

And me.

They speak in winds as one humming entity, lush

with the perfume of sweet familiarity, resonant and tender.

Here at this threshold of this flesh and those flesh-free

I bathe in our lake of Memory,

your sun-stained cheek and festooned smile, a giant

hand Leading this little grinning girl in flashing braces and a band-aid knee

up the trails of the Shenandoah Valley, past

granite boulders safe with ancient mysteries.

There, above the treeline, our fingers damp with half-melting cheese

while the winds played games with my braids, and your gaze remained

long, slow and solid

over the hills resting below like an old, faithful dog at our feet.

“Cherish this,” is all you said. “Cherish this.”

Back

in your abstraction, I recall

every sinew, every pore, every

bubble of ridiculous laughter

Shared.

As butterflies flit from fingers and leave glimmering powder as proof,

and the sea-gazing sailor, eyes shut, still perceives waves,

I will step into the absence of you and know that to be untrue. You

are still here, wispier than I remember, whirling with a speed you

long ago left to younger legs.

Here. These are my comforts in my liminal days, between

my particled body and your ethereal you.

I focus, perceive

the mirrored mind returning an infinity of dreams, genes, and stories

interwoven, as these pulses pass right through me, “The space between us,

mere illusions wishing to be freed. It is golden in the absolute.”

We drip into this world unclothed, eyes wide but hazed with wonder,

as nearby grasses sigh and lean, drunk with understanding, and

soil-covered cicadas tender wait for their moment to climb.