sensing you, i stood myself tall
i stayed and in my staying i grew
ten thousand tiny legs or more—

each root foot set upon your shoulders
lifted me among constellation stars

home i had never left,
not you

thank you ancestors thank you
for your neighborly attentions
sound vibrations spiral strung --

God’s first word, first and second
generation sun, a greening earth,
until everywhere shaping intelligence
this my body finally here

steady and true as weighed stone,
unjudging love is

what you have come to teach me

that i could choose to die to fear
and die to death itself