fallen verses

Snakes, Statues, Gods
In the slowly-expanding Goddess series, the Medusa:
Medusa
Come, Medusa, statue-maker,
and I will be Poseidon.
No temple safe
from the tides.
Surge and cast off
those veils,
So our eyes might meet.
Sing your sister’s song
as my flesh calcifies.
Kiss the advancing rock.
And take pleasure
on it’s immutability.
The eyes,
the eyes must be the last, to see.
Or the hands, to feel,
Or the lips, to [...]

Helen
When you were here,
when I could take your hand and
gently kiss the tips of your fingers,
you did not need a name.
I called you Love with every glance, touch, exhalation.
Today a body of water lies between us and
without your name my voice goes unraised
in protest at your removal.
Call yourself a siren and I will drown for [...]

Freyja
Lady of the Vanir,
Purveyor of the mystic arts,
Goddess of battle,
What do you do with your half
of the fallen warriors?
Those who flock to your banner and
your hall in the land of elves?
Where would you lead them in
your chariot pulled by blue cats?
Does your desire
extend only to those
who battle with sharpened steel
or when it is ink
are the [...]

All the World in One Girl
I unroll your DNA as if it were a scroll
and I can start from the present
and read your history in reverse.
There is an innumerable regression of bodies,
some passing beneath the gaze of Lady Liberty,
others strolling through plantations or vineyards.
In runes I see stories of you
clad in falcon feathers
riding at the [...]

Aphrodite, Venus, Love-
You are like the sea, inconstant,
advancing then receding,
coy. You entice, then vanish,
a siren without song.
When you are caught,
it is in a mocking surrender.
Like a crashing wave
you embrace that which pursues you.
Do not come to land-
I will come to the sea.
We will float, bodies entwined,
as the tides gently rock us.
The sun will [...]

I’ve been working (albeit very slowly) on a series about Goddesses. Installment 4, as numbered chronologically, is Inanna. I may get around to posting the other three over here, but they are viewable over at my myspace blog. There are mostly from the end of June, so they may be off the main [...]

Kali
Dance, my dark devi:
You are drunk
on life
and dance with joy.
Your passion erupts
in a corona
unmatched in the cosmos.
Your steps are earthquakes;
your glances, lightning;
your shouts, gales.
In your wake, nothing stands.
Dance, my dark devi:
Would that I were Vishnu
and I could spread
my primordial essence-
be a boundless
reservoir
and contain the fury
of your glee.
Then, when you are expended
meet you in tantric
perfection.
In your [...]

Isis
Queen of the underworld,
I swim through your eyes
as if they were oceans of sand;
as if a vast and forgotten empire
lay just below the surface.
My hands trace hieroglyphs
on your delicate, golden skin,
inking with my breath
the fantastic tales
contained on ragged
lengths of papyrus.
A warm breeze flows across the
Sahara and the Nile
into our pharaonic bower
where, as if in prayer,
I [...]

One Girl in All the World
I am honored
that on your walk through eternity
you have chosen to tarry
for a while,
without halo or scepter,
next to me.
One girl in all the world
and I adore you.
I am an archaeologist
looking in your eyes:
excavating first
warrior women and Valkyrie,
then Demeter, Ceres,
then, within a civilization of sand,
I see the sly woman, Inanna,
thief of [...]