Strangers

I visit you
Ever so often
but you
never know
I wonder
if my essence
lingers long
after I am gone
I say I will
never come back
but I always do
for your words
call to me
transporting me
back to simpler times
back to times
I wish had been mine

you call to me
with your
beauty
perfect skin and
dredlocks
oh how I love
dredlocks

yours is a
freedom
I’ve never known
yours is a
freedom
I’ve always
wanted to know
you bring out
mother earth in me
make me want
to garden
in the sunlight
digging my fingers
deep into the soil
of life
until
things have
changed

you call to me
yet you don’t know
we are worlds
apart
in thoughts
and at least
half a world
apart in
reality
but your beauty
calls to me
and I think
I know you

think I
understand the
freedom of your mind
as you go to
school
day after day
as I go
to work
yet another day

you have remained
true
to the sacred
voices of your
ancestors
who keep you on
a path of
oneness
I
have followed
the uncertain
and shaky road
of Christ
my brother
my Savior
you and I
will never be
one

you remind me
of simpler times,
small country towns
and eating watermelon
barefoot on wooden
porches
you remind me
of the feel of
sand between my
toes
on deserted beaches
at sunset
seagulls
flying overhead
you remind me
of the most
tender of touches
halter tops and
sarongs
ice cold
lemonade and
momma’s
potato salad
at family
picnics

you beckon to me
with your smile
and
boyish looks
call to me with your
words
sweet lullabies
that tickle my eyes
to read
makes my ears
burn to hear
them forming on
your tongue then
spilling forth into
the air
I think I knew you

I knew your
touch
before a time
when good girls
weren’t supposed to
do it before marriage
knew your
the taste of your kiss
on my tongue
knew you
before we
ever were formed and
placed here

I have visited you
again
unbeknownst to you
to see how you are
wanting to know that
you are okay
wanting to be
in that simple place
where life has no
rhyme or reason
outside of that place
of religious and moral
obligations
it is just I
I visited you today
to remember
how it used to be
to remember
how it never was
I visited you today
to find a piece of me.

Copyright 2003 Tumika Patrice Cain