out of the ground
i steal a bucket of soil
from a previously dug grave
now a healed over wound
in the loamy earth
my theft is to make
a small amount of clay
not even a handful
an artistic experiment
(this is science)
extraction
solution
excitation
suspension
filtration
refinement
(this is magic)
ritual
burial
inspiration
reformation
resurrection
my breath is the breath
of my ancestors
and yours
my hands dig and mix and form
this clay
this body of our ancestors
what whitman has assumed
i have assumed
Tag: ancestor
ancestor under the skin (20170226)
storing oxygen
in a pair of secondary organs
while swimming through my blood
it pulled itself forward on flippers
rough-hewn legs too slow
to evade an apex predator
but then
it broke through my skin
and had the new world to itself
Words and Feathers 