Hunted

Out beyond night-glistening stones
darkness at the edge of the woods
where the ancestors toiled on land
they took, I search shadows tonight
for proof of past sins.   

Hunted by inherited harm and happiness
Hunted by evidence of ways I still 
try to make any thing” better” 
than how I find it: salt to the stew,
light in the room - I’m hunted
by the sharp knife of perfection, 
the blunt force of ego, the costs 
of reparation, the abyss of questions 
for survival I do not contend with in
my well-sheltered world. 

Proof of past sins
I search shadows tonight
Where ancestors toiled on land
at the edge of the woods
out beyond night-glistening stones.