Old Voices
Teryl “T” Johansson
The Old Voices…
they keep coming on The Wind,
whispering and rattling,
they keep trying to teach me
The Old Forgotten Ways…
They keep offering to fill my hollowed-out places
with substance, with meaning
and I can almost hear what they’re saying
only it’s like my ears haven’t been born yet,
like they’re still underwater
and the ancient sounds are
too faint, too muffled, too far away…
Like a whale calf lost on the far side
of the ocean, I can feel the vibration
of my Mother’s mournful calling all around me
but I don’t know how to answer her
and I don’t know which way to go…
I’m straining every day, even in my dreams,
trying to make out what the Old Ones are saying,
trying to remember something that’s almost
familiar… like a song I heard only once
when I was very young,
maybe my grandmother sang,
something that almost starts to make
the old, old ache in my heart go away.
I lost something… long before I ever wandered
into this world, even long before The Salmon
made their first returning journey
to the Birth Land of the Streams…
I lost something pure and precious and vital
and it waits for me still, like nectar
on the sweet tongue of The Wind…
