Sunday, January 26, 2020

No Time for Nonsense

She came ashore
from the wild ocean
glistening with sea salt

"She looks so pretty,"
they all said
"her outfit is just so cute!"

And they missed the point entirely

Cute? Pretty?

She is an ocean warrior
a fierce guardian of life and the briny deep
she is half-wild and fearless
determined
bad-ass
bruised-knuckled
scarred and indomitable

she has written books in blood
and taught classes in caves
she has mentored students
and saved lives
she has plunged her feet
thigh deep into muck and mire
and dug into the bottom of the ocean
with a shovel and her bare hands

She is a sweat-stained stone bearer 
and a work-hardened master of her own destiny
she has wrestled with tentacles and grabbers
and not all of them in the wildern waters

She is strong and storied
undaunted and shark-dangerous
bold
wise
savage
strange
barbaric
heavy with rage and rebellion
and dangerous as a rip tide
and so
when she swims to shore
from months of world-changing work
don't you dare 
don't you DARE
lead with
"she looks pretty"
and
"what a cute outfit"

She is a spear bearer 
with no time for nonsense

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

New Paths

As the sun set gold on the first day
of the new year
he climbed to the mountaintop
seeking a place
as thin as the shell of a bird's egg
where he could pray to the
small hobgoblins and great minds
of the heroes of inconsistency -
those trail-less wanderers blazing
New Paths
that great cloud of witnesses


and he waited and
held court in hushed reverence and
prayed in tongues of wood and spirit


The wild birds were the first to show
singing the most ancient psalms

Then, Uncle Ralph rose from the grave
and began drumming
thum thum thum
on the side of a hollow log
a song of unsettled hope

Sister Rachel joined in song
an untiring song of beauty
and mystery

The Healer, King
rose up, too,
and preached a sermon,
saying that darkness can't drive out darkness

and then the sun set
and we all held hands
and prayed onward into the night,
confident that the next day would come
and that
in the meantime
we had each other.