Dear Ones Dressed As Dragons

It wasn’t until the dear ones 

Dressed as dragons and bedevilments

Arrived at my door with packing boxes 

And things that prod

– bulls heads and bone ornaments-

That I dropped the great and carefully sculpted rock

That  I would haul around

An  emblem or declaration 

“It is all very difficult”

My mother gave me this rock when it was only a pebble

Passed down from her mother and her mother’s mother

Great artifact

Archeologists would discover and exclaim, 

“There were women here!”

Formed by waters that ached

Sediment asserting it’s worth 

The sheer weight of it!

Walk by any river and you will hear the song

“But I loved you”

“Please don’t hurt me”

What the hard says to the gentle

Come to wash away

Hard headed

There are those of us who need water dressed as slayers 

With our reasons both noble and ignorant

A loyalty here

A need to be somebody (anybody!) there

We refuse to let go

Keep tiny reminders in our shoes

Of what could have been

Until one day, a great and quiet revelation

There is grass

Bare feet touch  

A groundless ground