Did heaven look on,
And would not take their part?
MacDuff in Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 3
Grandmother, from your bones
nearly a century deep in Dakota’s
frozen plains, call out to deeper
bones across the ocean and time;
rouse the flesh who gave your flesh,
the voices who taught you Хліб
and Хлеб, brot and Chleb, bread
on many tongues, but still the same
wheat born from the earth, the same
water cascading down the mountains.
Your ancestors, the tiny bit of you
that still lies in your homeland,
shudder beneath the rumblings
of the frightened bear, the flash
of fire, the demolishment of words
and the spirit they carry. Speak
from your bones, grandmother,
speak to the older ones
in the older dirt, tell them
the hour of darkness has come,
the blessed hour of woe,
command them to forego vague
promises and seek revenge,
tell them you would never
have left Kalush if hatred
and hunger and love had not
conspired, an unholy troika
that compelled you to flee,
to trek and sail and burrow
across the new world to find
a husband and land and seven
children, the last one who tore
you so your life was lowered
so soon; tell them, Grandmother,
that you are sorry, you are
sorry for what you did and how
it hurt, sorry for the betrayal
that freedom demands, sorry
for the lack of flowers on
their graves, tell them you repent
but tell them, sweet mother
of my father, to rise up,
to speak, to walk over broken
toys and bottles of defiance,
and fight, struggle, defend,
defy this land you loved,
this country in flames, this
world that cannot stop killing.
About the author: I am the author of the poetry collections The Devouring Land (Main Street Rag Publishing) and Quitting Time (Atmosphere Press) and Breathing in Minneapolis (Finishing Line Press). I’ve published poems and prose in over 85 journals, including Crannog, Ilanot Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Water-Stone Review and Lunch Ticket. Nominated three times for a Pushcart Prize and won awards from the Loft Literary Center and MN State Arts Board. My novellas Searching and Returning were serialized in 33 issues of The Alley News. I am the founding editor of The Phoenix of Phillips, a literary journal by and for the most diverse community in Minneapolis. Find me on my website.