You gave me a rose

in the bandaged wraps

of winter.  Plucked of

the heart.  Pulsating,

dripping with love and

valued more than blood

rubies.

Just a small

gesture.  Rich spiral

of life,  juxtaposed

on frosted snow sheets –

but oh! so poignant.

A wild woman born

has many flagons of magic

(and still other dungeons

remain in cobweb clasps)

She can drop her spells as stepping stones to glamor

turning each lock behind

in the black labyrinth.

The sky is crying rain drips

through the lashes of the tree

and in an instant splish-splash

summer’s gone

and we feel It coming.

How much more do you want of me, Mistress Moon

blinking your chimera’s eye, stirring my cells

in time to the moody lull of your barbarous beat,

intent on my submission, more white

than shark’s teeth, colder than icebergs, and broody –  endlessly throbbing?

Push sagacious eyes beyond

the tattooed patterned coating –

disregard the holy flesh

and seek within,

without . . .

I am wearing my life

like the gecko dons its skin –

ready to split at a moment’s notice

and leave all behind in a heap.

I crossed over in the night for the very first time –

just floated serene and lonely

on coffee-brown water that lapped at my raft, unfelt.

I was not so much frightened as stricken with awe –

full of no earthly sensation

but the rushing of time, propelling me on and on.

Then at some exact moment –  the slate horizon

cracked like a splintering egg-shell

and strange orange light bled through the fissures of dark.

It was not yet my time.