Notes About The Poem

poem written based upon this image--assignment for online poetry class

INVISIBLE ANCESTORS

They rise like heat-mirages  
at the edge of memory,  
shimmering figures who never learned  
the art of being seen.

They move through our days  
soft as dust lifting from old floorboards,  
leaving only the faintest signatures~  
a tilt of the head,  
a stubborn kindness,  
a way of listening  
that feels older than we are.

Invisible ancestors  
thread their breath through ours,  
teaching us how to stand  
in storms we never witnessed.  
They murmur in the marrow,  
a language without vowels,  
a pulse older than sepia photographs.

Sometimes they arrive  
as a sudden stillness in the room,  
as if someone stepped in  
and chose not to speak.  
Sometimes as a dream  
where a stranger’s face  
feels impossibly familiar.

We carry them  
like lanterns under the ribs~  
their light small, steady,  
refusing to go out.


We live our lives,
their shadows entwined in ours.
And though they left  
no names to call them by,  
they remain the quiet architects  
of our courage,  
the unseen chorus  
that steadies our trembling hearts.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2026

Poem

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Smith  Avatar
July 25, 2026 at 1:47 AM
Ancestors come when we need to understand. They reveal pasts never told.
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