Reunion

April 7, 2008

We make the sacred pilgrimage
be come as salmon
swimming back upstream to spawn.

We laugh and the elders lead the younger
down the road
dust from another age
cycling back

We come home.

The children fight- its all about dominance
about who will lead the pack

And our mothers and our fathers
are dim cigarette glows
in the darkness.

Shhh, someone whispers,
Jimmy brought fireworks after Tante Eileen
said to leave them home.

someone else answers
yeah, wonder if he’ll burn off his eyebrows again.

Kyle just laughs and says he found a snake by the pond
and we all troop down to see.

The cigarette glows gestured animatedly.
Jimmy set off his fireworks without singing his hair off
And the snake was gone,
so we skipped rocks and swatted at mosquitos

until the night was punctuated by Uncle Roberts flashlight
cussing at us for not being in bed.