Green Linden Press

When You Return Home

In         every               dream

a          breath              becomes

prayer,             as         creation

passes              the       living

in         rooms              of         fraying

smoke              and                  plume

Collide            in         the      wind

with     corporeal         hands,

death               gathers            ancestors

greeting           you      one      last                  time.

Other               swift                deities              collect

themselves      into      sedge               root

woven             baskets,                       stitched            by

a                      medicine         woman’s         nimble

and                  careful                        fingers.  

Gather             yourself           surrounded

by        dogwood         leaves              and      circular

clouds,             someone          whispers          your     secret               name,

the       words              almost                        escape             from

the       wind                onto     a          bluejay’s                     wings.

In         the       final                 resting             place,               words              become

Songs              you                  heard              before              you                

were                                                    born.

Delaney R. Olmo is a writer living in Fresno, CA. She graduated from California State University, Fresno with an MFA in Creative Writing. She is an enrolled member of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in Abalone Mountain Press, Solstice Literary Review, News from Native California, and many others.

ISSN 2472-338X
© 2022