We Build New Home

We Build New Home
© Surazeus
2024 06 02

I dance into strange dream of wind in trees 
that speaks with voices of the ancient ones 
whose faces in shadows appear to me 
with eyes blue-silver as the midnight moon 
that pulls me from dark silence of the sea 
so I too sing with language of her waves. 

Though I live far across the storming sea 
my spirit flies on wings of Icarus 
to the misty Carpathian Mountain range 
where I walk along rivers of my heart 
to find hearths of stone in wood feasting halls 
where my Sarmatian ancestors once lived. 

I follow footprints in the muddy shore 
to gaping cave now veiled with vines of grapes 
where bear-fur cape with feathers of the hawk 
lies draped on the table with silver grail 
while diamond-tipped oak wand leans on the wall, 
where I left them three thousand years ago. 

Holding skull of Zalmoxis in my hand, 
I hear chant of the Getae in dark woods 
as they dance wild from drinking snake-blood wine 
brewed by Sabazius with mushrooms in honey 
till Kybele appears from swirling smoke 
and sings mercurial wail of aching hope. 

After performing the bear dance all night, 
I climb winding trail among silent pines 
where ghosts of my ancestors wander still 
with voices whispering lost tales in the breeze, 
till I arrive in grove of apple trees 
where they would gather for the summer feast. 

Bathed in sunbeams from the silvery sky, 
face illuminated with light of faith, 
Scythia, wearing white gown and jeweled crown, 
turns to face me as I approach her hearth, 
so I bow to her with reverent awe 
for she is spirit of my ancient tribe. 

Though I live far away across the sea, 
distant from primal homeland of my heart 
where my ancestors lived on river shores 
fifty thousand years in valleys of fruit, 
spirits of Scythia and Sabazius 
still live in secret cavern of my heart. 

We cannot return to our primal homes, 
for we have wandered far across the Earth, 
moving ever forward life after life 
to pave road of hope with ancestral bones, 
so we build new home in land where we live, 
and we die as our children journey on.