Ancestors Poem by Carey Lenehan

Carry me on your sloping shoulders
and I will try to grip on with my toes,
my arms around your neck, crouched here, clinging.
Leap with me from branch to hanging branch
as I swing and dangle, almost letting go.
But not

Hold me in your loving arms,
clean the dirt from my eyes and ears,
wash the mud from my hands and feet
and the mites from my tummy.
Hold and love me as your child, as your
liquid-eyed embodiment of self.
As you

Play with me in the long grasses,
roll me on the ground and fling me,
high into the air, catching me with long fingers
and confident hands, grabbing me safely
as I bounce, as I tumble, never falling hard.
With you

Save me as the bulldozers roar,
ripping at the trees that home us,
pulling at the roots that bind us to the ground.
Scream for me, grab for me, I am falling
through the dark branches, loose from you,
lost from you, into darkness, into nowhere,
gone now

Copyright Carey Lenehan 2000