Geri Felix
from this world you walk to the east
where the sun rises and there is new life
no one speaks your name until one year has passed
my elders tell me not to forget you
i never will
i hear you in the distant night's wind
i see you in my dreams
i know you are always with me
and i am not afraid
it is said the journey to the sky world is a hard one
and there is work to be done
in one year's time your tracks on this world
must be covered
memories cling and pictures fade
no sign of you is left
one year has gone by quickly
i still feel your presence near
once again you must leave us
to start your long, long climb
tears swell my vision
my throat is coarse and dry
i can hardly speak
i hate to say -- good-bye
i am told not to cry
my tears blow out your candle
tired you stop your climb
my tears no longer sad ones
as i realize
you are always with me
and i am not afraid.
Geri Felix. "From This World" from Sun Tracks Five (1979). Copyright ©1979 by Geri Felix. Reprinted by permission of the author.
As printed in Larry Evers, ed. The South Corner of Time. Tucson, Ariz.: The University of Arizona Press, ©1980, p. 185.