Peggy Shumaker's new book of poems, Gnawed Bones, will be published in spring of 2010.   Her memoir, Just Breathe Normally, is out in paperback from Bison Books.  Please visit her web site at peggyshumaker.com.

Shumaker says: "Loss of language is one kind of loneliness for immigrants.  The inability to pass along stories, songs, jokes, and other wisdom in one's mother tongue leads to imaginative exchanges, like this one between a grandfather and grandchild."

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Constellations

by Peggy Shumaker  

My grandfather who came without money,

without seeds, without land,

my grandfather who brought his big laugh

and hard hands to rocky sloughs

and North Dakota winters,

his whole life dreamed

in Norwegian, glaciers

calving — the crackling shock

of tumbling ice

each time he woke.

His legacy passed on to us

in precious few words--

the name for rice simmered

in milk, risengrout,

lefse, the name for flat bread

patted out from leftover

spuds. 

He never taught us

his words for the stars, never

taught us his words

for wonder.  He just took us

out under night skies

and stood there.

Without words.

He read the stars

to us until we knew

who we were

under the same stars

in every language.