Lullaby for a boy buried 7,500 years ago

at L’Anse Amour, Labrador

“Lay his fragile flute, my dears,

Safely wrapped in woven scraps,

Near his fingers, stilled at last.

Fever’s gone and peace returns,

Innocence replaces pain,

Once again my eyes can see

The buoyant youth, he left behind.”

Grief has frozen mother’s arms

About his body, cold as stone

Pushed and pulled by tidal waves.

.

Years of sea cold lullabies

Whispered in his salty ears,

Once his life had slipped away.

He’d been young, a traveler,

Loved companion at the hearth,

Where, one day, he took a bone,

The hollow shaft of some great gull

And whittled it into a flute.

Then wild music rocked the waves

And blew among the flocks of birds.

.

Great auks nested there, and terns

Spun in winds above the beach.

Out at sea the supple seals

Tossed their heads above…