Day 576:

I come from a place where every shade of darkness has a name. My family emerged learning to sing to Te ao u`iu`i- the darkness the begins in the deepest pocket of the ocean. We are born praying to the sea that swims in every thing living. My ancestors were built of the clay of this earth; pours, like lava rock with the foresight of constellations so my father spits magma and stardust when he speaks. But this is only my father. only the part of me that speaks in ocean tongues and sacrifice. My mother is born of a different story. One I have learned- never wanted to enough. All I know is she was born of picket fences and crucifixes. She is the margin of every poem I’ve ever written, while my father- he is the reason I speak.