Losing the Words

We lose the words many times
from places we have come
like migrant birds unable
to flap their wings to search
for spring sunshine. In moments
of hesitancy, we are the blank
stares we remember on walls,
ruined and standing by the wayside
to remind us of journeys
we have gone through
across tragedies we have not redeemed
from the laughter of our broken hearts.

We lose the words
and in the infinite mercy
of love, we come to our sense
of what love can gives us back.

Today, we turn the homeland
into a phrase to start to recall
what we have not dreamed of
for a long, long while.

It is is like this sudden urge
to make that phone call
to a daughter, young still
but younger when left behind,
to say Good Morning after one
sweet dream of abundance,
the numbers in lotteries
we want to buy next time around
to spite the president and her men.

Hon, HI