©2017 Turtle Heart
i remember deaths
that I did not die
ancestors I never knew
and the names of
strangers
I did not bury into the waiting earth
I remember mothers whose sons
I did not bleed or maim
and I remember prayers I never made
to gods I never named
in wars I never fought
all that I do not know
yet not knowing is not the same as unknown
or unmoved, so I remember all that
by dreams I never had
and the stories that men will tell
if the tears of heaven were to fall
would my faith swim or drown
sinking to the bottom
where those actual feelings lay screaming
in sacred silence
that silence no one has ever heard
or would I rise newly named
and blessed
and rise up to the sun once again
is it easy to remember what has never happened
in that life where the body never dwelled
and the bells never ringed
where water and wine
dripped from the rainbows
onto time’s old bones grown shiny in the dawn
where light begins to leave the shadows
and the shadows become children once again
remembering everything
trusting everyone
I am forever the one who never knew them
the one who has counted shadows
the one known only to the wind
the one who remembers…everything
Turtle Heart...©
Winter 2017
