And then I wrote this one about my grandmothers and not knowing one of them-
Born a ghost Born of ghost Born to know The inheritance Of holes In borne shone there Where the emptiness Grows
You made me, Borne in wanting Waiting For magic So Ill defined it can’t be known Magic Made In river dirt and rocks and Loneliness Me Child of the void In you
In finite Trapped But ever expanding celestial To what I can never know, Never understand But know That I am missing
Lesser Wanting Unbroken but not whole just— holey.
Here, I cling To rafts made Lashed together of rituals fragmented by time And space And here on the ocean, Stormy seas I’ll wash swept Slung to symbolism crashing on the rocks, Weathered
And is it my solid bits, buoyant with ******* That keeps me afloat Or the hole That is home in me.
But then again—ghosts don’t drown I was born dead at sea.