Motherless Daughter

Keeper of the eyes of gratitude,
daughter of the soft light of the late spring sun,
oracle of the buried pain of generations
who could not lift the bones of their grief
to be bleached clean in the light
of the living world

Talisman of a bloodline that survives
in your womb and asks to be born
again in words that sing alive
what once extinct still lives
like a promise spoken by shorebirds
dancing in the animated surf

Feel my heart pressed against the wound
of my absence that kept you silenced
for so many years.
Speak with the voice you have
found that is a bridge
between our two worlds.
Listen as if my life were a bell,
once bright when rung and low now,
effortless as the shallow breath
that breathes you through the night
and delivers you alive
to the undiscovered territory
of each new day with its invitation
to praise beauty, as if that
is what you were born to do.