study in progeny |
You welcome strangers to hallways, |
some of whom having no idea why they came, |
yet all waiting. |
you greet them with gifted compassion |
I silently wonder how well you can keep |
recognition's stark secrets. |
And did Charon, ferrying gleaming warriors |
across his domain, secretly spirit a daughter |
into the light, cheating the gods of the sacrifice |
her name would have made her, |
and would she remember her past, |
one whose eyes only saw the Agean |
her skies drenched bright blue: how many ships |
did you silently launch that you now never mention? |
I've seen you dressed up in shadows, the ones with the memories, |
adorned in your sliver of dark, your birthstone amulet. |
child of light, dark rivers run deep to their pale arctic oceans -- |
do you, still, sometimes, long |
for the place that you left? |
© Jon Bohrn (1999) |
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