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I am our family elder

 

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She wants me to give her

what she chose to not have

 

She asks again, give me progeny, give me our myths

in the shape of history and missing information

 

She wants me to pull stories from our family cloud

hanging humid with secrets, lies never spoken of

 

She wants me to conjure tales she can

propagate like the children she never wanted

 

She calls again, asks again for mysteries of our single uncle,

I tell her again every drop of whisper I can remember

 

She imagines family legends will care for her in years ahead

like the caring daughter or dutiful twins boys she might have had

 

But the stories turn to dust in the air between us

I cannot weave a story where she will not be alone when she’s old

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Sharon Lopez Mooney, I am our family elder, “Soul-Lit”, ed. Wayne-Daniel Berard, "Spring 2022 Poems", Rhode Island,  http://www.soul-lit.com/poems/V30/Mooney/index.html

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