What We Carried
We carried the weight as a reminder…
Birthing our collective pain into each generation.
What We Carried
We carried the seed of the first
Along the centuries of the past
To the time of the present
And into the future
Wrapped in the skin
Of each of us
A pocket within a pocket within a pocket
That seed felt each trip, push, stumble
That seed felt all the skins
Wrapped around it
And the pulse of the experiences that tore
The skin open
Bled into each seed
Birthing our collective pain
into each generation
We carried the product
That couldn’t break down
But could destroy us
It let us use it as a way to help us carry
But in the end it filled us—
A life that ends—
With it’s never ending life
So to carry it
Created us a paradox
A dying shell
Holding a living poison
That was also medicine
That could heal the dying
We scrubbed it
And reused it
Making it clean
And worthy of life again
But each washing wore away
The coat that separated the
Medicine from the poison
We carried the sands of the past
The dirt, the nutrients, the peat and soil
It weighed us down with each step
But together we heaved it
From one body to another
Like sandbags
Filling, protecting, building
A future we might never see ourselves
We carried the weight as a reminder
And as a tool
Into a space that only allowed building to be straight lines
And sharp corners
But we carried it anyway
with longing
