For You, I will Build an Altar

 

 

   An Ode to You, My Sweet Kin; My Ancestors of Whole

The wet streams leak. Subtle ignition.  To streaming but sitting. 

  They are the tears for you I weep...

Those who for so long....

  I had denied. 

The underpin...

  Of every toe wiggled..

Every dream kept and buried, and stowed away. 

 Every tear...alive with memory...

  and stored here. 

I hadn't known.  What I was. 

  I just knew it hurt so much 

     To be it. 

So I denied you, my kin...

  My blood before me...

I denied you...

  Because I was afraid. And I was small. 

But I see now...

  There is no denying the breath swept through it all... 

  In the heartbeats that gave birth

That dragged themselves through hell

    So that here, 

I could sink, or kneel, or stand. 

Instead I pray. I do. 

  I bow my head and lend my tears to you. 

I harbor your broken dreams burnt at stakes and snuffed out at the hands of husbands professing to love you. 

I hold here, your generations weeping, 

  Saying, 

"I finally see you". 

"I honor you" 

"I know why I am here now". 

  Then take this shared vessel of insight- drink then from my vase as I refill it with your well. 

  I am here for you! 

An Honor, an offering up 

  For every unrendered injustice 

     You limped through. 

For every man that slapped your face, 

  And snuffed out the blaze 

     In your soul. 

I see now....

  I am that flame, re-emerged...

 From the flickering you never put out. 

A baby. A Vessel. 

  And yet whole in you...

In who WE ARE, 

  Whole in how I see now...

I can honor you. The sacrifice it took...

  The breaking of our souls...

I will render this resurrect once more! 

Earth. Air. 

Fire. And Ice. 

  I will resurrect that which was never lost...

But that what we stored together in hiding and in codes. 

I will honor you....

   For what they from every last one of us, stole. 

I will never part from you again. 

  Please accept these tears...

    As an offering from my soul. 

And take my hand. And show me...

  What then my Kin, 

I need to see. 

  And let this understanding...

Never go untethered 

  Ever 

 Again. 

In the name of the Holy...

     

                                  ((( Amen!)))