Sparks fly upwards
Tiny stars
Ever aspiring to their greater cousins
The dark lies close
Closer still the past
The caves are never far away.
To be born from the cave
By the light of ancient fires
The mother rocks the infant
Her feet of clay
And a bear skull upon her brow
Thumbprints of ash her eyes.
Bear skulls and antlers
Moss and red clay
A braided rope to lead the way
To the Otherworld
And back again.
The rattle is an antler
Full of stolen snakes
And promises brought to flesh.
She dances
And the earth moves
She wails
And the sky weeps
Her lord is the king of the grasslands
Where the stars sweep wide
Impressed by love upon the bowl of night
The lord of the lightning tree
Of sparks blown upon the wind
Undying and eternal.
Grain and fruit
And blood and bone
From the horn the river flows
Two rivers
That are yet one.
She smiles and her teeth are stained
By marrow
Good grinding teeth
Her milk rich as honey
Her hands full of dew.
To sink into the earth
Is to touch her
Her name resides within the caves
In the breath of a new-born babe
Warm as fur
Familiar and true.