Birth Rite - '00

Lavender skinned I am a mountain
The caves I have cried in are open to me.
Scents of sulphur and thunder my spine
I am shifted as sand in the fist of the sea
I am flung to the night with the stars.

Dark waters deep holding limbs of smooth stone,
Rocking hourless weight over into the void
Black winged pain claws at me back to the core
Stitched into my bones, tattooed in blood
I am hurled to the teeth of the waves.

Abacus eyed I am voice of the ocean
Speaking grey rhythms from the edge of the blade
Cutting through death, moon starved and moth driven,
Body drummed torched by the taste of the blaze
I am splitting damp wood in the hearth.

Grasping the heels of the crashing red spirit
Grandmothers spin him into his skin
Old hands spit time and sparks fly in the silence
I am driving him out on his fragile wet wings
I am crafted anew with his breath.

In the stillness of dawn singing, I am a lion
Licking sticky night black from the back of the stars
The rhythm of love is still thick on my fingers
Weaving sunrise soft bellied embroidered with scars
And the milky way shines from my breast.