i am named for the rain / in the old tongue / i am named for the river / on my great-grandfather’s land / i was plucked from the soil / like a seed brown and sprouting / in the sun’s familiar gleam / i am the long finger of country pricked with a needle / to get to the blood where the stories live: / the peace-time, migration / invasion, diaspora / the one about the holy book / ours, the old rituals / the drought and the flood and fire / the mountains too remember everything / there was the linger of country in a look / every story becomes prophecy / wetheyi give it all ourmytheir names / i carry them all in the dip / of my nose, the melanin blooming from my skin / history stirs / i whisper it awake with the sound of a name / mine / dreams are a well of prophecies / i am the land i walk / a memory / my ancestors do not know my name / dreams are an ocean of memories / i dream-remember them all / our everything bound together / i will touch the ocean floor with my fingertips / for the first time / i will understand the words //