Where Yesterday Walks With Me

I can hold it in my hands. The heavy book of names Now laden with the dust and grime. Leather-bound and torn It is the color of the prairie earth, that changed from rust to gold Heavy was their lot. of those who tilled the land Kansas dust, would furrow brows, of the worried and the worn I feel within my heart, sharp splinters from the plow The weight of shoulders, tiring From lifting me Long before my hour came Oh, for the power of these words To learn the names, that held the brush That paints for me, and planted row, by row This tree of life, that let me grow Bound in leather, bound in love, a family's footsteps, read I feel the trace, in pages spread Names inscribed, of birth and death Of children lost, of hearts that bled I feel the sense of who I am Between the threads Frayed and thin, within these bindings Yet holding firm Confirming what’s been said By generational latitudes Linking me to names I never knew ______________________________ (Quoted by William Golding NY Times)