Ancestral Dialectics

 

From New England in the Seventeenth
Century they moved west, many of them,
Stopping in Indiana and Illinois for
The Civil War and then came further
West.  What does it now mean
That I have lived so long near
The Pacific, swimming, diving,

Spearing fish, sailing to Japan
And back again? Was it Japan
And Korea I truly sought?
I thought so for a while,
Reaching toward them to touch
But came back again.  That couldn’t
Have been it.  I’ve since moved

Part way up a mountain and sit
By a window watching a low-hung
Cloud full, or partly so, of rain
Which won’t be salty like the sea
But perhaps just what I need to
Determine which direction I should take,
Whether to pull further back or move on