A journal of art + literature engaging with nature, culture, the environment & ecology

Heritage

Catherine Audrey Hess, Ozark Mountains, Arkansas, USA

 

in another life 

I walked these plains 

on another woman’s legs

 

I saw the great beasts 

rear their heads proudly

commanding their kingdom 

 

colossal, shaggy 

things they were 

so full of vigor 

 

the tall flaxen grasses 

danced at their behest

moving in wild rhythm 

 

those were my 

ancestor’s times 

times before ships 

 

an age before vessels

rolled in from the ocean

and shed flesh here  

 

an era before men 

chased the beasts madly 

and drove them to dust 

 

hardly anyone left

to remember the names

of those who came before 

 

the woman I once was

tells me of the fields 

and their beauty 

 

she inhabits me 

as I inhabit her 

we are one and the same 

 

connected through 

generations 

by our heritage 

 

as one soul

we

remember 

 

Catherine Audrey Hess is a Native American poet and student whose work has appeared in Dual Coast Magazine, Peeking Cat Poetry, Wales Haiku Journal, and elsewhere. Her work celebrates the natural world and the divine feminine, and is colored by her heritage and her role as a mother. She calls the Ozark Mountains home. 

Two poems by Christien Gholson

Tralanis