comfort language part two

rosehip & sagewort, on the rocks at tthe yanlin ('water flowing through the rocks'), southern tutchone country, yukon, sept. 29/07

last autumn flower, tthe yanlin, s.t. country, yukon, sept.29/07

comfort language, part two (draft)


three days before her death
my baba spoke her last;

she sang after me,
repeating the words of a
folk song i was coaxing out
of her, trying to see if she
remembered, if she still
flickered beneath the slow
breathing & candle-ash sighs –

the erosion of english
had left her old tongue
emerging on the surface, like
the colours on a pysanka
after the wax slowly melts
away –

o kazalo divchatko
moje holubiatko!

her head on the pillow,
& she was smiling.

how the softest needles
embroidered those words,
the timbre of her voice
cross-stitched across a pillowcase
into my head –

scho virno kokhaje mene!

how she is still singing
those words now, over and over
& maybe

this can finally let us all
rest.