"I don’t know the sign language for waterfall, 
but this is the sign for water, 
at least when you drink it, your fist and thumb
to your lips"

"But what purchase would not prove friable? 
What mineral trinket could link a lineage? 
No fancy forges truth, no figment rivals  
flesh and blood."

"Their father comes home, coal-black, and with
each hug they suck in puffs of unsuitable soot. Their
mother tells them this is home now."

"So many names to learn, so many already lost, 
constellations, composers, flora and fauna
of the eastern seaboard, ancient gods and heroes."

A reading of "Trace" by Jesse Graves.
Image by: Steve Johnson