Human Head Effigy Jar, by Barbara Loots

Human Head Effigy Vessel, by late Mississippian nations, Arkansas (USA) 1350-1500. Photograph by Daderot: Creative Commons.

Human Head Effigy Jar
                             for A.L.

Imagine if a light were set inside
this ancient figure of a human head.
Could these deep eyes alive and deified
connect us with the wisdom of the dead?
Whatever consolation we might seek,
this intercessor only comes to hear:
the lips are sewn.  The image cannot speak.
Perhaps some golden gift adorned each ear.

We ponder lines incised upon your face,
mysterious symbols that we do not know,
divided now from your ancestral place.
Yet in the flicker of that inner glow,
we share the wonder of the mind within,
life made of common clay, our human kin.

Barbara Loots

Barbara Loots volunteers as a docent at the renowned Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Her poetry collections are Road Trip (2014) and Windshift (2018) from Kelsay Books (and amazon). She can be found online at various poetry sites and her blog at barbaraloots.com.