Ancestors

My face is a face of all of my ancestors.

My face is a face of every brave woman

who had to protect herself and her family.

Of every young child

who learned how to communicate for the first time.

Of every hunter

who courageously wandered through an unpredictable forest.

Of every gatherer

who patiently searched for the next bushel of bright berries.

My actions are the results not of me,

but of the thousands,

millions,

before me.

They’re my primate grandfathers learning to walk,

my renaissance ancestors hearing for the first time that the earth revolves around the sun,

my religious ancestors who all had faith in something greater than themselves,

and have passed on

to whatever truth is out there.

I am me, but I am everything.

I am an accumulation of a thousand faces,

one million meals,

hundreds of hugs,

and one planet

with the same ground

that holds it all.