Image courtesy of Carol Sorhaindo.

—-

Gathering Ghosts

Tonight, I gather
my ghosts in gratitude,
collective memories clutch
hands and commune
around the full moon.
Their gifts of self and love, hang
like lockets close to my heart;
Wisdom given with open arms,
not pulled like teeth from those
whose wrists are bound by fear.

Tonight, tears
flow, lapped up
by waves
of infinite hi’s
and good
byes.
The calming hand of midnight
has put all but me to bed.
Left alone with echoes,
I catch fleeting shadows
in bathroom mirror lit by stars.

Tonight I gather my ghosts in gratitude,
and press flower memories
of time together
into my heart.

 

—-

 

Giving Birth

Sometimes the only babies
a woman chooses
to birth, are her words.

Always a late
developer, mine scratched
on pregnant pause:

and forced their
way between
tight lips.

Wayward, untidy, they
toddled naked into
the world;

I tried to catch
and tie them in
pink bows

but they wriggled out
to play,
confident, carefree,

and I smiled at whispers
that they did not belong
to me.

At night they crept
into my bed
and covered

my nakedness
with their gangly
limbs.

In muted nightmares
they disappeared;
I woke relieved

to find my words
tightly wrapped
around me.

—-

 

Celia Sorhaindo was born on the Nature Island of Dominica, lived many years in the UK and returned home in 2005.  She is currently the Dominica coordinator for a US charity organisation, Hands Across the Sea, which aims to help raise child  literacy levels in the Eastern Caribbean by shipping new books to schools and assisting with the creation and maintenance of school libraries. She is also a self-employed artisan and photographer; member of the Dominica Arts & Crafts Producers Association and the Nature Island Literary Festival. She is the co-compiler of Home Again – Stories of Migration and Return; a collection of contemporary real-life stories by men and women who have returned to Dominica, published by Papillote Press.