By M. Carmen Lane
uprooted
&
pushed
through
stillness
came for
me
there was
nothing
left to
do
but fall
onto the
smooth/
bumpy
back
of Turtle
watch
as Nana’s
primordial
soil
spreads
bringing
equilibrium
woods
&
water
purpose
unknown/
this new
world
is
waiting
for you
my sons
I pass on
pregnant
thoughts
of good
will/
possibility
unmoving
&
unable to
let all
the grief
go
I carried too
the
shadow
side of
joy
tangled
energy
my
offspring
will play
out
this
tension
over
& again
my head
on
a pike
even
ceremony
will not
be
enough
we must
examine
again
our
resistance
like the
ancestors
uprooted/
falling
through
into new
life
Copyright © M. Carmen Lane. All Rights Reserved.
M. Carmen Lane, author of Calling Out After Slaughter
M. Carmen Lane (African-American/Mohawk/Tuscarora) is a poet, cultural worker and consultant. Carmen's work has been published in Red Ink Magazine, The Yellow Medicine Review and is a contributor to the Lambda Literary Award nominated anthology Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature.
www.lanecatalytics.com
