The Mineral People

the mineral people

are keeping the time of the elders

underneath my feet

i continue my rushing practice

while they open up the cracks

and leave them full of wind

I am not sure about them yet.

Have they been here all along?

I've kept time with them in my many, many houses, for decades.

I've held them, given them as gifts.

I have even wept with them, right next to me.

But never spoken to them until now.

They tell me things, like

yes you really should feed your drum

we are a council of ancients

look how much you've remembered now

There is something soothing me

oh look a tiny chasm

There is a dark circle forming

Cecalia climbs down with me

There are caves of incomprehensible depth

so I will feel them instead

allowing them to strip

layer after layer of identity away

until I am

not

anything but rosemary on a drum

feeding myself scent-memories of what is now happening

Re-membering my grandmothers dancing

there is nothing to do Sarah-Lu

There Is Nothing TO DO Sarah-Lu

is the name of my new novel

the one that will tell me my new story

with its blank pages lack of ideas and dead sea calm