I Come From a Long Line of Women

I Come From a Long Line of Women

I come from a long line of women who have endured.
Their names fade now from weather-worn stones
their stories dissolve on their decaying lips
voiceless beneath the earth,
survival notched and nicked in their bones
where someone tried to break them.

I come from a long line of women who have endured.
Their buried truths form a twisted ladder in my blood,
each generation a woven rung:
each mother’s loss
each sister’s cry
each forgotten daughter’s shame
sewn into place
stitched with sinew and secrets, calling me to climb up
like wild ivy to shout their sacred names
to speak for all of us, to howl and yip and roar:
We are still here. Death cannot quiet our truths.

I’m made of a long line of women
who have endured.

52 Ancestors Challenge by Amy Johnson Crow. Week 3 prompt: Long Line