Eleanor Lerman

WE HAVE OUR DOGS AND THEIR ANCESTRAL BLESSING

If tomorrow,
it turns out that our lives
are more mysterious than we thought
but our connection to each other deeper,

involving secrets about the creation of fire
and the folds of time that figure, mathematically,
into the distance between our encampment
and the distant stars, then even so

we believe that we are ready
More ready, probably, because we are friends
The scouts say it is dark up ahead
but we know how to live from meal to meal

We have our flags
We have our dogs and their ancestral blessing
Out on the road, we will survive the winter
In the spring, the wind will write its thoughts
upon the future

It thinks of us
It thinks that we will win