To My Family Poem by Katrina Harms

[shouting down a hallway,
awaiting response]
Those who have come before me, and after (however briefly)

hello?
You were with me, once
Isolation and dreaming
and remembering a dream once forgotten.
Calling up,
the cistern's walls are cold with
niter and its damp cavities the long space-
you can hear me, can't you?

Far away, I could learn to
live without you,
I've done it before.
Love can be undone
Time can be unraveled
Bonds can be loosed
until nothing remains
but to call you

stranger.