Alyssa Ness
Photography and Poem By Mary Barbosa-Jerez
On evening-dark stairs, a child listens to her parents consider their small creation who won’t eat other creatures. Their careful argument speaks less of disagreement than to the truth of shared belonging – each to the other. This child welcomes never-chosen orange, always, as her favorite – the last red-orange flaming of the setting sun; and favors, too, its compliment: the deepest blue of twilight, of the passage between worlds. She says, “I’ve never had a hero.” Then, unwitting poet, sings of her Ulysses and her Gilgamesh, chants their steps through desolation – injured, weak, unwanted – into light. In her own heroes’ journey, she says, “It would be nice to feel I’m where I’m supposed to be.” Gilgamesh sings back through time: We are forever children, twilight safe, eternal heroes in despair. Through bright fires, cold seas, and darkened skies. Through all the passages between all worlds, none are lost. We belong – you to us and we to you.