Genealogy Mothers

[I wrote this to "All those at MyFamily.com"]

Genealogy Mothers

searching through shadows
of mothers long dead
earth as a blanket
stone at their head

but alive in the paper
and wild megabytes
books, family trees,
genealogy sites

breathing life into their stories
like glowing embers to flames
elijah's great promise
i'm a keeper of their names.

Choices Of The Quick And The Dead

with rags for a mind i pass
through a flurry of fleshy fingers
communicating
and dead names encased in a cold computer
ruminating
and the choice seems obvious
but there is a fear of the unknown
a fear of failure
and of prodigal spending
and so I stumble
on the piles of rags
and know not
which way
to turn