You were just little when you started to walk away
from all you knew,
when you left Mama and Daddy in the past
and used your bright sight to peer into another way,
another path, another road to another life.
You were just little when the spark in your large eyes
lit the way, showed the door,
looked into the faces of your teachers and knew them
as you knew you.
You were just little when you made invisible notes on paper –
– not to give away the sacred secret you held in your belly –
when you charted the path even you did not know for sure you’d travel.
You were just little when you began to say goodbye to the legacy
the ancestors had given,
when you knew you’d always love them with their faults and their virtues,
when you knew you’d have to take another way that wasn’t easy for you,
walking alone without a map, without a hand to hold yours.
You were just little when you smiled your last smile at the doorway to the ancestors,
when you told them you’d take their dream to safety,
you’d walk in worlds they would not know, could not see.
You were little when that part of you took shelter in your darkness,
the glimmer of hope which lit your way watching,
watching, watching for the light.
The light that lights your way, now, now, now…
poem, Mary Elyn Bahlert, 8/2025
-Mary Elyn Bahlert, 08/2025
