MITRAGYNIA

shape shifting :

I am the Seer

the conduit

the vessel

the receiver

the maiden,

the mother, and the crone

I bleed and yet I survive

I am reborn every moon

I come full circle

with a depth you cannot imagine,

with your shallow trajectory of pleasure

I am emptied and

I am (fool)

Here Lies Power.

I can dance between all worlds

earth and aether

warmth between my legs &

fire, deep in my belly

even as my head gets stomped on

I am whole, I am green-eyed

salt-licked cheeks

I am wobbly awake in daylight

I am

practicing restraint

I am

perceiving impermanence

I am

the devil's advocate and mistress

I am

not thinking,

therefore

I am

not ?

I am open for inspection &&

totally unobservable

I am full of surprises, he says

which only reveals his blind bias

rushes about his goodness.

he's miles better than his father.

and still he won't allow me

my name (which he so defends)

Woman.

they are afraid

there'll be nothing left for them.

they are

Afraid.

because like fish and fungi

we are shape

                          shifting

we are sh-he-er

we can be all of it

It doesn't mean we don't need you.

We want you to come with us.

Here Is The Portal --

wide open to enter

you pass through whenever you can but

it's more than just getting in,

more than just getting wet --

it's a taxing art,

being received and re-seen

you'll have to be willing

to sing the skeleton back to life

you'll have to be willing

to kill the things you love dearly

to shed tears and lick wounds

to taste iron in your teeth

to kiss feet, temples and hags

to dissolve and decompose beneath us

to be transformed and chewed up and spat out again

unrecognisable

but oh-so-light

and in the brightness, we'll all be new

our children will shine the way forward

the forest will open its wings

and the earth will tremble with joy,

shapeshifting 

in the eye of the beholder

so dangerous to be young --

everyone wants a piece of you

and you have so much to give

everyone gets a limb or two

so dangerous to be aging --

you want a piece of everyone

and you see in yourself

the sharp teeth of a wolf

Like the Colour of Earth (and not Your skin)

infatuation.

(like always)

: my veins desperate to drink

in the gentle copper curve

of your eyelashes

which sit briskly above your quiet cheekbones

over and over

rain-lit ocean eyes and

lips alight with joy

(I see them every time I close my own)

close to sit

and there, should be sensation

in real time --

instead, fantasy / fantasy / fantasy

mind, I see the fixation

dangered delight in delighting in ..

the putting down,

the retrieval /

the casting aside,

the "picking up the coal"

I'd move down you, if you'd let me

softly, just how you know I like

and in the sharpness I'd reveal

all the atoms I'm made of to you,

animus mundi

my polar opposite and twin

-- could you hold me ... ?

or have you not yet grown ?

(though I love your slightness

I love also your strength --

balance is exactly a libran's coveting)

power and abundance lies between us

as in him and her.

the mountains are full of wild cats.

he warned you -- watch out

ate eight ate

before life gave way to redeath,

my acquisition of beautiful things --

off the street, the basement, bar or beach

like some green-eyed magpie

I could build no nest from them

now I practice discipline

(excepting in the forest,

where words re-emerge,

and at night, when catharsis

turns in two gentle streams)

so my hands are clean(ish)

even as I caress the dirt,

even as I lay myself prostrate before you

in the pretense of putting in plants

do you see me fawning ?

or am I too good at opening and closing ?

am I too good ?

am I, too ?

(surely, you are more discerning

or else, more innocent than I)

from there (the discipline)

wisdom uprights itself ;

from there,

maybe,

maybe ?

love-like lettuce grows