The Next Crossroads

6. It happened that I came to an age Where girls were not as repugnant as Radishes set before me at dinner time. I met her and I wanted to touch her Immediately. To grace her golden hair And smell the rose petals thick on her skin. I could barely speak as I approached her. She asked me questions, dowsed in the familiar But with riddles for bones. Who was I, she wanted to know. In the beginning I had no answers to give her. She did not care. I kissed her, I cared for her. I wrapped myself in her skin for months. But all at once she needed more And I looked deep inside myself to please her. For in that moment, to even think of loosing her Caused my mouth to go dry and gummy. 7. My breath was coarse, white on the air As spring approached. For the first time, I would run down a race track on my own, My parents not even looming in the audience. The frost glittered in the mud But it would not stop us. It was all on me And I knew I was the fastest, That my legs would hit the ground And the en

3. A mother's love goes all the way back to the umbilical cord. Stretching from hip bone ovary to intestines, Feeding our hunger with hers. Is it no wonder she gave me the world? In her care life was bountiful. Robbers and cops, seeking and hiding, buried in her bosom to hear her heart beat perfection. When I would let her coddle me no more I ran from my front door to find another mother waiting. Vegetables sprang up from soil saying I created you and you will nourish yourself of me Again and again and again. Stars shone for me with every step The waves caressed me. The soil was cracked heaven under my toes And if I was cold; If I was ever starving, I need only follow the taught string tied tight Back to her arms. 4. Created in his image My father smiles every time he thinks I look like him. His hands are calloused and strong. They have fashioned cupboards from oak. They have held a rifle squarely To eek blood from pelt To carry home moose and hare Slung over shoulder. I remember w

0. I was born with heart palpatations like the charge of a locamotive chugging through my chest. I needed to scream. I needed to wail. My exit from the womb was adrenaline waiting to rest. When the noise stopped I sat upon a hollow log, listening to silence. I brushed the dust from my pointed shoes. I collected myself. All at once I noticed how one side of my tunic glistened like blood under oxygen, red and shimmering and the other balanced with the light of the sun. I was energy. I was fire. I would not wait for an older thing to chance upon me, to take me from coals and save me from immortal adventures. My sudden rise caused the bells to jingle upon my cap. I smiled at their happy sound. I tripped. I barrelled careens and twists over waterfalls. I journeyed. And fell. 1. I landed with skin slicing jauntily across my cheek. The earth beneath my hands was rough and rock. I felt pain. Upon standing, I saw that the world was a force in metamophosis by virtue of my mere presence. I kicked

I was standing on the shore In a place I thought I'd stood before Where the waves lapped up against my feet To mark the place where spirits meet. Yours was of the finest gold, Mine of silver, tarnished old And they came together, intertwined. I was yours and you were mine I could see what you could see I was you and you were me. On that shore, our souls were one Until the seams all came undone. The links all fell to the floor And broke me till I could take now more. But I kept some scrap, some memento of you, My tarnished soul and your golden hue So I could stand upon the shore And remember how I'd stood before.

With Bride's fire in my eyes, I could see clearly beneath the stars and glowing moon. I traveled for a long time, trusting that I would find Giobhniu's dragon. I faced some peril in the forests and swamps. I came across fierce creatures and some nights the storms raged and the ground was distrusting beneath my feet. On more than one occasion, my boots sunk deep into the mud, lurking up about my thighs and I struggled against the pull of the earth. I was forced to grab at roots and stones, conjuring all of Bride's power within me to pull myself up and continue. I lost count of days and nights spent in the dense, swampy woodland but eventually I found an opening into the world beyond and I slipped out. I felt joyful walking down populated roads once again. I barely thought of Ailsa, Lynn and Mayra and how they must be shivering in Bride's temple. I admit that in my happiness to be out of the forest, I almost forgot Bride as wel

Hurrying through the woods I came eventually to the crossroads where Bride's sisters had found me among the thorns. I looked around the corner of each of the paths. From out of the darkness I heard a faint “hissing” audible, for I was used to mute quiet. I held my torch up in the darkness and saw the shape of a snake resting between the three roads. I knew that the creature was sent by Bride. If she could not stop me, then she would be my guide. I held the light over my head and followed the snake as it slithered down the path to the left of me. The snake's scales shimmered like jewels. The path was rough and faded into grassy knolls where I walked but the snake kept me from loosing my way. We traveled through the night and into the next day and I stopped only to chew on a piece of corn bread or drink some water by a well. None tasted as sweet and pure as the well of my Goddess but the water quenched my thirst. Before the n

I tell you without thought that I love her. If I were a poet and writ of her on the page I could not have fashioned her more perfect, for what words could describe her hair, black like an ember after the flame has died or her skin that is soft like moonlight. I felt her warmth from the moment that I entered her temple and I knew that she was a Goddess before I worshiped her. I was only a boy, rescued from the tyranny of slave work. The sisters of Bride found me laying among the thorns at the village crossroads. My brow was damp and my legs bloody where the undergrowth had sliced my skin. “Lift 'im up, 'elp us carry 'im Mayra.” I could hear the women fussing over me but I did not have the strength to open my eyes. I was weak with hunger and thirst. The one they called Mayra fretted about me, feeling my limbs and chest, repeating again and again the name of her Goddess. “Bride, oh my Goddess, oh my S

Crossroads My body is cold and rigid, my hands like icicles on your skin. I woke up in the morning to find the leaves had changed, Frost weighing them down Like so many memories I tied onto stones And threw into the river. I have always taken solace in the seasons and sudden transformations And known that sadness would always melt into laughter, Pain always explode into persistence, And the dawn always make way for the beautiful shoulders of the next day. But for the first time I want to run my hands over the calloused rock knowing that it has been there For millions of years. I want to know That I will always love you But that our paths were never supposed to meet and that we should just feel lucky that they did. I want to know That fish will always have fins, That birds will always have wings, And that a bubble will always burst into tiny droplets when you try to catch it in your fingers. In this way you will have taught me to recognize forever wh