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Something to Leave Behind

by Catherine Moran (USA)

I turned to see my footprints

leading from the azaleas

knowing that spring rain will smooth them

before anyone sees their outlines.



My feet have left a few prints

in some paths along a crooked way

like a creature limping towards staying alive.

The mud of back streets

have tracked my strides towards attempts

at fleshing out a wandering spirit.

I have flaunted earthy boundaries

with wooden steps wishing towards immortality.



I have walked through the curved rhythms

of my poems like a wayfarer.

All those lines brush purple streaks

into the person I hope to be.

Dreams of tracing

into a lasting moment

fade with years of scribbling on paper.



Near the shores of Calvert Island in British Columbia,

twenty-nine footprints were discovered.

Estimated to have been created

13,000 years ago,

they are the oldest human prints in North America.

This creature may have been heading towards

a tribal village to meet with leaders,

a favorite fishing cove,

or a rendezvous with the family clan for dinner.

He is remembered twenty-nine times forever.



My print in the wet concrete of my sidewalk

may be the only indentation of me that survives.

I hope someone realizes

I was going somewhere,

I was searching for something,

I was intent on becoming.

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