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.