HEARTH HOUSE

WITH MY WIFE, RETURNING HOME TO INDIANA,

TO MARY AND ARVIN'S, IN NEW ROSS,

WHERE HER MOTHER'S PEOPLE COME FROM

Natural light in the ancestral home,

hearth house, gathering place,

Mother-step site, archive

and archival, storage vault

of story and photograph,

where Karen came, where she was left

as a child, where she returns to.

I step back and lift the camera

as she walks through the door,

screen down, open generational eye

for the heart embrace, blood relatives,

Aunt Mary, Karen, quilter coming home,

part of the fabric of this light.

Jim Bodeen

June 24--12 July 2016