New Poem: In Me, Through Me, With Me

In Me, Through Me, With Me
 
the warm kisses of their soft lips
carried to my rosy forehead on the beams of the sun
squinting, the shadows and spotted colors of the star's playful dance begin to form their faces
and I see them in a clear blur,
a lucid dizziness of past, present, and future
colliding, transforming, coalescing into the ever-changing melanin of my own skin,
the youthful freckles metamorphosing into wise moles,
the traces of their footprints speckled down my arms
with each sloping curve of my own body, I map the rippled topography of the women
--my women
their strength, fertility, and endurance visibly replicated in the DNA of my cells
their resilience bouncing in the elasticity of my breasts,
nestled in the ridges of my full hips
I look down at my hands,
and in each crease I see the wrinkles of their struggle, the scars of their labor
along the life lines of my palms lay the treadmarks of their path,
never divergent but overlapping, sharing-- searing the bonds of continuity
and they reach forth to me, through me, to a novel world of endless opportunity
and in the land, I feel the extension of their love,
grounding me, rooting me by power of their unseen fingers on my toes,
the thick, aged roots of my family tree,
lively and nurturing in the woven labyrinth wrapping around my ankles,
only to lift me upward, pleading, encouraging the natural evolution of bird's flight from branch
and those who've walked before me,
their songs and stories caught in the cavern of my own throat
distant echoes swelling, blending, and escaping in the mingled tones of my voice
their hopes, dreams, fears and fortitude become battle cries,
poised to advance, erect at the edge of the sword of my tongue,
and driving forth in each of my determined words
vessels through which they rise again-- to conquer, survive, surpass.

Content Copyright 2011. Ami Lovelace. All Rights Reserved.