For Sue

The opened body becomes the vessel

of healer and also receiver

I find her in the Seer’s Circle

cloaked in the feathers of owl, anointing

those who come to give also receive

in her beloved place of heather and stone

time and space unfold into the opening

I feel the press of her lips between the brow

🐉

Seven days brings us back to her circle

to witness the winged soul ever-giving

feathers of bird become the butterfly

“Look closely,” she tells me. “See.”

I watch membranes divide

into notes. Hear the music of cells

holding the song that is life

Enraptured until form turns slug-like

and I question the pull back to density

reluctant to notice what is soft is also strong

vulnerable, yeilding

the snail enters the body’s chariot

A tiny spiral opens

into infinity

and suddenly we are in the place of stars. Vast

limitless

the serpent pulls us into its arbor

to understand rebirth

above a farmer’s field

density becomes a head of stone

fixed as though immobile

“Each is a piece of Her. A brain’s repository.”

I nod, understanding distance to be a ruse and watch

wisdom circle the mound in the body of the serpent

collapsing time’s hold while the clock splits open

rising sinuous into the darkness

the serpent swallows the sun, transforming

into dragon. Now winged

returning to seed the waiting womb below

light splits the body’s veins

finding the path once again