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)
Copyright © Carrie Richards | Year Posted 2012
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