something of weight
or, the actual tool to lead us home.
breadcrumbs leading us home. this saying has stood the test of time, no matter how bad a metaphor it is.
but therein lies the paradox when it comes to “tales as old as time.”
time wears away at the story around it, stripping the meat and leaving the bones.
the bones end up scattered, and some folks can piece together a story’s fragments, adding meat and fat where there is none…
….but they never consult the bones to reveal their truth.
oh, but i’ve learned to read the bones. the bones lead me back to the story. and in this case, the bones whisper,
pebbles
…pebbles led them home
not the breadcrumbs…
…breadcrumbs
the breadcrumbs…
took flight with birds
so they wandered aimless
into the mouth of murderous intent
it’s never the wisps of memory that dance in and out of my mind or the residue of a dream that dissipates upon waking that will lead me home.
no, it will be something of weight that will lead me home.
for my bones, my marrow, my being is forged with the matter from my mother and her mother and her mother, going all the way back to the first of our line.
stories long forgotten
magic long forgotten
memories long forgotten
beckon to be remembered
Ancestors call, waiting for me to allow my living bones to speak knowledge that when matured, will travel, through the vein and artery,
blood seeping into the muscle wrapped around these bones of mine.
dry bones can be read easily, but how do i decipher the mystery of bone wrapped in living tissue?
how do i translate memory, blood and voice calling to me in languages long forgotten. (for we dream and remember in a language that was never our own.)
something of weight will lead me home.
it’s this body.
this body i’ve long distrusted,
a body mistreated,
a body overlooked and frowned upon,
a body expected to bear the brunt, and bear the children
a body hated, yet coveted
a body whose pain is seen as myth and dismissed.
yet is a body that is brilliant
a body that can be soft and strong,
a body whose beauty shifts (depending the element that adorns it)
a body that travels time and is clothed in wisdom
a body that is a portal
and can hold life and death simultaneous.
a body that remembers and connects to memory through blood and bone, sun and moon, water and earth, wind and fire to bring story.
story that leads to ritual.
story that leads to connection with all that is around it on all sides of the veil and in all realms.
story that informs and brings wisdom so that this body
can heal itself and others
can teach itself and others
and sustain itself and others
and give the truth of its story
no matter the generational efforts to erase it.
….something of weight always leads us home.