Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 09:28:30 -0400
Subject: can you tell her


can you tell her

you have her skill and flow in narrating stories
of old
of now
of then
of when
so it is you who must

can you tell her that i need her stories

as i know only to scribe

watching my own transitions from narrating
story-telling 
when i was younger, when you were all babies
listening to her story-telling

knowing that i would have to learn as he
did
to de-scribe
the narratives
and translate

as he did - but more completely, for he told stories until the day
he left
he taught me how to translate and scribe
but with her voice mixed in his

and he knew not
this

can you tell her
i will lose my voice

if i can not in-scribe
her story-telling voice
into 
my scribing

can you tell her - her who passed
her story-telling on to you even as you were a babe
in all our arms

can you tell her
i need her stories and strength
to re-scribe
in-scribe and pass on to future generations?

r
___________
Radhika Gajjala
http://www.cyberdiva.org
http://lingua.utdallas.edu:7000/4425/
fax: 419-372-9841

__________