In the Coals
The sky danced a glimmer of setted sun blue
Softly through into the night
Like rafters keeping us safe on our path under heaven
Trees wove themselves over us
Breathing light from coals washed the five gathered faces
Flickered in their eyes and over their bodies
In the quiet I saw
In the south like the waves from beneath the sea
One spirit shone with a shimmering breath
And another in the west settled on the rafters there
With a sighing light barely seen and hardly felt
Amid the rafters of the north one other spirit swayed
There too an ethereal visitor echoed in the east
In the quiet I saw
Faces bright, strong and painted with a wash of . . .
Contentment, save two, both fallen of crest
And still under the watchful eyes of Nokomis high in the skies
One rose to smile holding a light before him closely
But woe fell across the other for being there within already
As if unable to escape for eyes unseeing
In the quiet I saw
I watched a struggle between three spirit cousins
Over and all around they fought where he had fallen
So vicious this fight, it cast a shrouding over everything of him
For these two beasts snarled and slashed for dominance
While the third sat quietly as if waiting or perhaps just watching
With great patience for one to fall and it too was evil
In the quiet I saw
The sky shone softly in the ambient light of stars unglimpsed
For Nokomis with her watching eyes held us
As only grandmothers do for having loved and loved her child’s children too
All through the night she held us as we sailed without a sound
Across and over the blue of setted sun somewhere next to here
With the warmth of coals burning nowhere save inside
In the quiet I saw
In the quiet I saw five souls glimmering
In the quiet I saw a war cross one red road
In the quiet I saw the spirits of four ancestors
In the quiet I saw everything, nothing all that I needed
In the darkness of the madodoswun it is dark as pitch
And still, and yet . . .
Before the door whispered to open
I saw in the quiet still
Copyright © Neal Freeland | Year Posted 2006
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