The Family Line

By Loden Croll

The Three Sisters To corn: Sister, sister, tall and fair Will you reach the top shelf of the sky For me? Will you go ahead and Scout the way for me?

To beans: Sister, sister, middle child

Will you be brave and accomplish all I was Resigned to grow towards Will you bend and sing into the wind For me?

To squash: Sister, sister, smallest and laughing, Will you ground my winding spirit For me?

Will you tell me to hang on and giggle with you When it gets cold?

To my mother and all her children: Sister, mother, creator, nurturer, will you plant us in the ground and Be the catalyst of our grueling journey of adolescence

If this village is the one to raise us in the dark, then they are the ones We shall feed come light little runaway child yellow-lined desert roads concrete river, bring me home impervious to the sensitivities of her sisters, father, mother, their tears roll off her back like duck feathers into the swollen currents, a river mimic, shadow twin, swallowing her shining elixir and choking on the gold

Father weeping

It is over and it begins and So on

The clouds cry and run off for

Someone to care enough to go find them

For why not drink the life

Water of your brother’s tears

If they were sacred

If the lake turned over on its belly and Changed the whole world over for you

How come you refuse to do the same for it

No wonder father sky cries for us

Mother Earth

Caregiver, taker, lover, maker

In my mind, I have a home among the pines

Where two kids fall out of trees into the deep snow

Hailing the winter sun as god in every intrepid pursuit

Talking story of lush ferns in the summertime (itchweed)

And the pleasantries to which the birds would lately return (sweltering Julys)

My legs scratched and stiff, a time traveler whose bones become more Breakable in the heat

As if our mother did not forge us in fire

Brother walking

Someone told me a story once about footprints in the sand

And I saw a little girl swinging wayside

Grounded by her brother’s hand

As they made their meandering way down the beach

A sandpiper with a plastic belly, scampering to and fro

Searching for food, or for a purpose

Which walkers did not know

But felt the waves pull it from just beyond their reach

Bearing the weight of the future on their shoulders

One brother walking, and a sister reaching for the sky, praying to never get older

Sun dripping down their backs like fool’s gold, armor none could breach

If you no longer see them walking on the shore Down the shell of the great planet’s ear, blue They are carried in the arms of the sea, forevermore Take care of the world, and it will take care of you. H