odyssey

I'm searching for you, mother

in the roots that ground my feet

and in the arbor of my fingers

reaching up into your light.

Surely, it must be you

in the core of my twisting trunk

that has turned this way and that

in yearning?

I search for you, mother

but only find ghosts I left behind;

caught in the wake of my hungry quest

they join me in my searching.

Some, with empty eyes

and some with frozen hearts,

but all with lithe and ready limbs

aflame and burning.

I search for you, mother,

through tangled kelp under sea

where life has bloomed in the braids

of your hair's vivid tapestry.

I am fish, I am plankton,

I am blind eel in the dark,

you are the song in all the spaces

of Time's relentless churning.

I search for you mother

in the roots that ground my feet;

the arbors of my fingers

unfold to catch your scent.

I travel in light and in the darkness,

on land, sky and in the sea,

only to find no matter where I turn,

to you I'm always returning.