oldearth

for a friend, after getting the email from genetic testing from relatives never known

Who is today's dweller of that cave house?
...
Destiny has brought us together
        from all corners of the world. 

From Crossing Hangu Pass, by Zhan Shichuang, translated by Charles Q. Wu

in one generation, it can be a family riven
later, a minefield, avoided
in a later generation, it can be a missing tooth
finally the time ripens to reach out
and fill the heartmountain with oldearth


 
sometimes, we don't know we had holes
til whole again, uprighter, spacious
we begin to dance

 
the body starts to move in ways unknown
pivoting then leaping from origins
finally known, sturdy earth everywhere underneath us
now: contact, knowing, sensing

 
we can only leap from contact

    oldearth   provender

               dance