(NOTE: Sometimes Island is part of Kodiak Island in Alaska, USA. The island is only reachable during low tide, when a short and narrow land mass appears).
I am remembering me
the person I used to be long ago
Sometimes Island
sometimes you
sometimes the wild berries
and the pushki
trials before technology
before buildings and boulevards
the beaches where we dreamed
the love we made and left behind
on beds of moss in the underbrush,
where fall covered the place in leaves
and winter entombed our passion
burying in ice and snow, the seeds
of memories that would grow
as sweet as the salmonberries in august
the ones we ate along the way
I knew we were losing more than us
with every step we took back through
the low bushes that scratched my arms,
and left these scars
the ones I touch when I remember
like I am remembering
the people we used to be
sometimes crazy
sometimes scared
sometimes together but alone
I am looking for the trails
that wind back up the mountainside
through fireweed and sticky spruce
to find the place where we left off
it is here some place
I know it is
and it pulls me back again and again
to dig up earth and rip up grass
fistfuls of dirt and ash
help me pull up these roots
that lay across our overgrown ways,
my island, she remembers me
she sealed my laughter inside
the rings of her trees,
and lay moss over my footprints
I hear her playing with the wind
singing with Three Sisters,
”Come home.”
