photo of an orchid root system hanging on the side of some carved coconut sculpture with a fat wispy-skinned bulb-neck of an orchid growing out of it, with a silhouette of a hook with twine supporting the structure.

yesterday, the family toppled
an altar and dug up the vessel
of ancestors who had been
held there in the earth.

they cradled the thing.
they placed it amongst sacred
objects and offerings on a truck.
they drove it across the island.

we drove it over and around
the lakes and the mountain
on roads like melting hairpin loops.
we called them wrinkles.

we arrived at the older
the older-newer
present home
where home would be.

they placed the ancestors
underneath the altar
in the older shrine, to be
held there in the earth.

over sticky jajan and sweet coffee
we were laughing about
how complicated everything was.
any simple story.

imperfectly
a jepun tree was in bloom. the night
sky was almost free of clouds,
turning and keeping it alive.


//

and after we have had (or held) our fill of such as those
in turn i was questioning them(selves)
about the (things) by this

153δ

ἐπειδὴ δὲ τῶν τοιούτων ἅδην εἴχομεν
αὖθις ἐγὼ αὐτοὺς ἀνηρώτων
τὰ τῇδε