Donna Winter

we sang the same words as our

mothers

aunts

& grandmothers.

anthems echoed

throughout time

through warehouses

from rooftops.

shouted from soft & dewy lips

hanging in the smoky air,

like eternal embers.

lights &

cameras &

smiles-

FLASH!

lighting up midwinter

like the lingering sun,

who knows not when

it is time to go home-

over the hills

down the valleys

into the endless mouths

of the tides.

chewed up

spit out

swallowed up

spit out

sink into the shallow depths

& do it all again.