We Could Not Disappear

In the face of the unspeakable,
we stopped speaking,

forsaking the ability to summon 
each other and ourselves,

and the responsibility
to keep singing the world into being.

And to keep from being disappeared,
we made ourselves disappear,
bit by bit -- 
                    until we were barely there at all.

But this was not the end.

ii.

Long ago, our ancestors, too
disappeared.

In the face of the iron blade
and the iron plough

they descended
into deep waters
and hollow hills.

In the silence
between our heartbeats,

in the moments
before we choose
to breathe again,

we hear the echoes
of their songs.

iii.

Their is nowhere
we can hide 
from history.

Even the dead
must watch 
what unfolds.

But having abandonned
who we thought we were,

we find ourselves
in the dark cavern
of remaking,

and the rhythm 
of our hearts

becomes the trance
that turns the stars
into the constellations
that will guide us
into a new world,

birdsouls carrying the seeds
of forests and meadows
and orchards yet to come.

photo from Wikimedia Commons