Excerpt from Scattered Rainbows Volume II of Circle of Life Trilogy

IN THE COMPANY HOUSE

Before the woman's breasts
would lose their firmness
and run dry of milk,
before the man's lungs
would turn black,
cause his early death,
before she would choose church
over her children,
before his body would give itself
over to wracking coughs
from the dust and dampness
of the company mines,
before the gospel and the herbs

There was my grandmother
in the company house
baking paska,
making halupki and pirogi for fam'ly,
my grandfather's fertile voice
streaming in from the garden
to blend with her singing,
his music enriching the soil
beneath his feet, my grandmother's
clapping hands, feet dancing rhythms
from their courting days
in the old country.