[25] "We Pioneers"

We Pioneers

By Deidre Price

Screaming into forbidden, uncharted lands,

we found a strange hope and home,

despite being blindfolded and naked,

alone even though we were together.

Hope is what you must feel in your hands

when the land from which you flee

is a city of scars with a history never stopping breathing

even though we held those stories under water

and when they would not cease to kick,

we dried them off, and tried a flame.

When they would not die, we left and led ourselves away

into a place as far as we could find

until our scars changed from red to glass.

Our histories' lungs seemed,

at this great distance,

still and silent enough

to make us believe

we'd begun breathing

on our own.