“Where is the wanderer’s home?

           Runo 34, Kalevala

HERE

© Jane Piirto. All Rights Reserved.

At our grandmother’s birthplace,

in her very front yard,

here, my mother, sisters and I

walk the very path.

Here, very here, this very river

in Vimpeli, Finland,

here this yellow round church,

here, this brown swift river.

Did she swim in it?

Here we, her American children

come to see, to feel, to touch.

No, the river runs fast and deep.

Here, the very view she saw here

her whole young life.

Part of her myth is

she was a very good swimmer.

Here, this very old church steeple,

the one in the old photograph.

Here, these new green reeds.

She would swim out to the middle of the lake.

She would float for hours out there

at camp in the Upper Peninsula.

Here, we are in her dream time.

After she left at 19, she never returned.