May 2023

Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Dallas, Texas

I'm here

where it all ended

here, where you took your final rest

This place - this place

where I've never before been

This place, I've finally discovered

Out of the car we quickly come

Quickly, we go in the given direction

but, I just see grass, green grass

Green grass and trees

No headstones, No markers

No nothing

Left, right, up and down and back again

Walking, feeling, knowing

You are here

Ancestry told me so.

Here,  I have come

Come to see

Come to say 

Give my respects...my respects??

Pay my respects

But where? Here? There?

No markers, no signs 

no way of knowing.

With more directions,

I go to the road lined with trees

I stood there looking

Looking for you

Softly saying your name:

Mommy, Mommy where are you?

Mommy, it;s me, Tootie

Mommy, I'm here!

I know you are here.

I feel your presence

I feel your closeness

I asked again

The worker comes with a long rod

Inserts the rod into the ground,

Here, Here is where she is

Took a step to the left and pushed the rod into the ground

Her grandmother is here

Her grandmother, my great grandmother?

What a day, What a find.

71 years later, here on the side of a road

I've found you.

I've found me.