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Says Old Jim

Where my tepee is attached to the world there are many lashings. 


My mother lashed me to her back as a baby and there I faced the future. I have seen many things. I am still lashed. Such is life.


Says Old Jim You were a colicky baby. Your mother bore you on her back for thirty years, the weight of you with crooked legs. 


Later I walked upon bones, bent at strange angles.

My father said No. HYEEEEE! YOU child. A small stone caught in a current turns, hardens, has no ground.  


From under the water I hear my father above.

Pulse

swarming insects, flocking birds 

dark masses make their way across the sky. He says Leave your home.


Thinking of slow-moving hands and the comfort of frayed fabric, pushing the needle through cloth and working the awl into thick animal hide. The wise wearers of old clothing.


Patching, mending. I pound more stakes into the lashings but winds from the north are strong and dark. I stay close to my mother.

 
 

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© 2024 by MARJORIE BALZELL 

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