"...to carry away memories brought for the forgetting
on one thousand one auspicious origami birds
whispering over chilled salmon, ripe fruit
suggesting the fertility of the afternoon."
from the poem, "One thousand one wedding cranes" 1998
I am our family elder
​
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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​
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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