A Moment of Softness

by Alysha Wedderburn

A moment of softness
Tender ecstasy and happy tears
Happy tears because we’re together
We’re all together now
No space between the present and the past
The past is the future
The present is a bay where we washed ashore
No more yearning or seeking
Every gourd is filled
We had a feast with no harvest
A love without flesh

But we Shared a Home

I walk forward, just on the edge of her dream
My heart hollow, my body empty, my spirit full
I see the other side. The sisters, the family I never met
We never shared memories. A bond of flesh and blood
But we shared a home
The place where two hearts beat as one
They are so alive, and me, a distant memory
A birth gone wrong, but my mother held me still
I was born silent, without a veil of protection
There are three of us, and I was the last
The last to be born drowning in the blood of the lamb
A wombmate that never was, a ghost and a memory
A cell then a seed
A seed that exploded and returned to earth
I was buried as a seed
Then I grew into the mountains, and the sea
I was everywhere and anywhere
Dreaming with the ancestors they couldn’t see..

A Fisherman’s Tale

He arrived home smelling raw each night
Stinky and sweaty, smelling of the sea
A fisherman who wouldn’t eat catfish
Wouldn’t eat anything lurking at the bottom of the sea
No shrimps or tilapia
It had to be fresh caught
Eyes bright and glistening
Bright red scales that sometimes turn to blue
Red Snapper for dinner please
Escovich too…