Where I am meant to be

Beyond jagged snow-covered mountains

Cloaked by steeples of midnight green trees

Unlimited in a swath of changing colors

In the space between whisps of circling sage

Radiant across crooked landscapes

Within the breath between breaths

Breathing lore to life

Bringing warmth to soft cheeks blushing wisdom with age

In an endless line of life itself farther than sight

Standing among each of my mother’s queens

Where I am meant to be

With bruised toes rooted in black ash earth

Stretching aching arms wrapped in sinewy muscle

To my father Sun mother Moon sister Stars

The jewels and petals flowing from my fingertips rustle

Seeds of dreams inked from my just being

The author of ever flowing pages

Leaving impressions in hard soil turned soft

In between flat dry grasses returning to pliable Spring

Soothed by the salve of my enflamed coolness

Born from my burning signature

Where I am meant to be

Among waters rolling roiling

Lapping at the moist mouths of native land

Coursing through weeping trails sowed with severed limbs

buried in shifted blood red clay, wet reeds and bone fires

Obliterating remnants of calcified stones

False utensils forced upon and swallowed by the captured

Seeping deep in the belly for ancient fruits

Once plucked clean from our communal table

To pile lusciously high on plates and platters

While tears of fresh juice drip from our tongues

Where I am meant to be

Painted with rings of intense golden yellow

While standing naked in the universe connected by mothers

Unapologetically bathed in brazen glorious light

Heroically carrying precious fragments of our wombs

The elements perched on our hips

Balance in our rhythmic sway

Along the currents of cleansing winds

infused with the scent of my sisters’ sweet fragrance

Gifting soil wet from rainwater nourishing the fuel of fate

As a beacon beyond any earthly boundaries