Step 8

Step 8

I am a motherless child
Mothering 
fatherless daughters;
the gaps in familial love
open like the prairie before me,
greening springtime hope
the trail trodden by journeys 
ancestral and deep.

Daughters and sons robbed 
of affection by addictions 
that stole parents away;
bottles brandished as trophies
or hidden deep in cabinets 
under sinks, in closets;
an inheritance 
unwanted, 
unrepentant.

Skeletal withering skins embrace pints
fueling bitter poisoned veins,
too weak for simple earthly pleasures; 
crisp wind snapping leaves, 
cumulus cotton sky, 
the squish of muddied earth
birthing dandelions.

I walk alone 
followed by ghostly steps, 
birdsong in low plains brush
signaling our path of healing and love.