Restitution

Suzanne S. Rancourt

They take flesh at night when I sleep. Sometimes they leave miniscule white stones
the size of salt or sand. I wake to flesh removed from the precarious landscape I call my
body. White grains the size of ant skulls piled as cairns magnifies the enormity their
presence leaves. Spring smell in late December contrasts this phenomenon.
We are not alone in the moments of sacrifice.
A winter child,
I roamed at midnight. Woke by the moon
I’d put on x country skis and pass along the narrow gauge rails
returning home invigorated and wild just before sunrise.
When we get lazy,
complacent or too busy, we forget to make visits
to the keepers of the wild who remind us they come at night
take flesh – sometimes – remembrance chiseled as dots
like a nuthatch or wood pecker spearing bugs up and down the ash.

Sundress Best of the Net Nominee, Suzanne S. Rancourt, is of Abenaki/Huron descent. Author of Billboard in the Clouds, Northwestern UP, received the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas First Book Award, and murmurs at the gate, Unsolicited Press, released in 2019. Old Stones, New Roads, Main Street Rag Publishing, is forthcoming Spring 2021. She is a USMC and Army Veteran who holds degrees in psychology, writing and expressive arts therapy. Suzanne is widely published. Please visit her website for a complete publication list: http://www.expressive-arts.com

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