Converging
Death
comes
as a welcome gift, its plumage outstretched
I wrap it around my chest.
swaddling the stilled baby,
there is no fear to be found, no wailing to be heard.
You offer ceremony, and I sink into
our thick silence. Bullfrogs illuminate
the winter night with their resonance as a waxing,
crescent moon hangs high above the sycamores.
You dig, and I kneel. You cut away, feathers and talons,
and I smudge the air between us.
Time, a fluid river, runs between the child
who ran through these same coastal desert hills and the woman
who now offers life right back to the source from where it came. Body to body, soul to soil. One and the same,
we are. Together,
we sing the refrain.
as a welcome gift, its plumage outstretched
I wrap it around my chest.
swaddling the stilled baby,
there is no fear to be found, no wailing to be heard.
You offer ceremony, and I sink into
our thick silence. Bullfrogs illuminate
the winter night with their resonance as a waxing,
crescent moon hangs high above the sycamores.
You dig, and I kneel. You cut away, feathers and talons,
and I smudge the air between us.
Time, a fluid river, runs between the child
who ran through these same coastal desert hills and the woman
who now offers life right back to the source from where it came. Body to body, soul to soil. One and the same,
we are. Together,
we sing the refrain.
(*"Converging" is a re-post from January 2012)