The Sturdy Ghosts
Through the
mist, there they were,
The sturdy
ghosts, waiting for us
On the snow in
their blanket coats.
"Bring
tobacco," they got to the point
"We ride
to the sky on a cloud of tobacco."
So we burned
sweet and spicy tobacco
Dried and cured
in warmer lands
And they said,
when they drank the smoke,
"We will
place a tree in your path
So you will
stay with us till we are done."
The wind heard
them and dropped pines
And birches
across our trails
And took us
off-grid and cut power lines
So we were in
the big house of another time
In a world lit
only by fire
Rubbing at
smoke-seared eyes.
The old ones
said, "To open the strong eye
You must close
your everyday sight."
In the firepit
cave I heard the heartbeat of the Mother.
I closed my
eyes and saw what I had come to see.
Poem and Photo by RM
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