from AT HOME IN BELL BUCKLE, Poems by Leona Elen (1996)
(published in Bell Buckle, TN, USA 1996 by The Brideswell Press)
Reprinted here In Memoriam to Jere Hall (d. 2015)
Do you remember, brother, how we knew this land by foot?
Before horses ran among us, before we wore the boot?
The trackways were well-travelled, our villages kept informed
Before forests became timber, before the Circle was malformed
The mounds rose high above us and we entered up with awe
For there the shaman awaited us to tell him what we saw
We ran perfect as one body for from one womb we came
They chose us before our birthtime for mother dreamt our Name
Running As One we wandered this country far and wide
We vowed to run together until the day we died
But I was born a woman and you were born a man
So in the end our lives were run by dictates of The Plan
For though Our Run was paramount, my body blossomed forth
And I was chosen then to mate with a shaman of the North
And in all the lives that I have lived in northern climes apart
I looked to see if I could find my former counterpart
Then I remembered who were were, that night, in the old Cafe
When you touched my wrist and said, you have a runner’s way.
I have my loving brothers, they are all three runners, true
But now our vow is honoured, I have a newfound friend in you.