The Old Song of the Tribes

The sky draws its curtain
across the season. Any day
now it will snow, curtaining

the footprints in the soft earth
we made today, but any day in this life
or another, if I meet you, the earth's

pull will be upon us, the mark of the forest
will be on us, indelible handprints, birthmarks.
We will know each other in city or forest,

despite continents and oceans, we will know
each other as much, as little as
we know ourselves, as much as we know

what the mind is, what the body
can be. Amidst
all the changing, our souls will remain
true to each other. The rest can be mist.

~Patricia Monaghan