Today's poem is Aphelion by Patricia Smith Ranzoni. It is read by Julia Bouwsma.
APHELION
At midnight tonight, grandmothers,
our constellation will be its maximum
distance from the sun.
Still, we, ourselves, closer than ever.
More-than-ever, your voices give me,
and I rejoice for the foreverness in that.
Greeting this day your way, grandmothers,
I have walked to the pond,
to the heart of your land. I have conversed
with friends, listening to their tongues.
You are looking for me, grandmothers,
I know, and I am coming to meet you,
can you tell?
You, to whom I am seventh generation,
can you tell?
And you, between now and then,
whose prints I have seen?
Every day now I hunt for you.
Through oppressive heat and thunder
I hunt for you.
Like the lavender powder flowering
On the timothy right now
drawing field after field of first light,
I see what I’ve never seen before.
The sixth of July, two thousand two,
and I’m coming to you, grandmothers!
I’m coming!
Previously published in FROM HERE, Poems from Being Born in Lincoln, Maine, Homecoming Edition, Hand made by the author through One Water Press, copyright 2011.
Music provided by Storyblocks and Chris Moore.