The Answer is in the Question

(in response to Margaret Walker's “Lineage”)

by Christie Bates

“My grandmother was strong

full of sturdiness and singing…

Why am I not as they?

They touched earth and grain”

“They touched earth and grain!”

I dream of leaning in as I say it back to you,

mirroring the longing to know. “That's why!”

Before they were stolen away from their own earth 

to plant seeds for others, 

their bodies built from earth they knew 

and knew themselves at home. 

Whereas we... well, I imagine you wispy, 

fey, as dreamers often are, 

floating in memory

never really rooted until we recognize 

that creatives must claim all 

of Earth as home.

Then we can land 

here for a time.

Christie Bates lives in Oxford, Mississippi