Sometimes I find myself
thumbing through faded photographs:
women in dresses that reach to their laced-up shoes,
men wearing grey fedoras and leaning on canes:
my ancestors, whether I knew them or not.
    I wonder about their stories,
about what they learned of wisdom
and where lie the connections between our lives,
theirs and mine—
and how it is that I know so little of them
and how it is they feel so elusive
and how it is they feel so near.