Timuquana Fertility Rite

they would have come here
on these worn trails
through thick woods
when Spanish moss hung
ghostlike
from trees just beginning
to green

silent feet and
whispering voices
down the forest path
to the place where water
gushes from rock
and flows in two
directions

standing in late afternoon sun
warming from winter
gathering and speaking
in unfamiliar tongue
a familiar ritual
of disbelief and wonder

Photo by Karma Norjin Lhamo

You may be interested in...

To See on a River [Mark Smith]

To See On a River by Mark Smith | YOU’D HEARD OF the river with the Native American name for years. Friends had floated it, ...
Read More →

Collecting the Ichetucknee [Simpson]

Archaeology Collecting the Ichetucknee by Jerald T. Milanich and Mrs. H. H. Simpson, Sr. | AS AN UNDERGRADUATE student assistant in the Florida State Museum, ...
Read More →

A Cave Diver Remembers

A Cave Diver Remembers by James H. Woodard | MY INTRODUCTION TO the springs came when I was young and stupid. I am now no ...
Read More →
Scroll to Top