I Am !

This is a poem I wrote about a year ago. I was with friends, completing a writing exercise based on the phrase "I am" from Starhawk's book Twelve Wild Swans, and related to gender. The idea was to describe yourself without referring to whether you are male or female. (One of my friends wrote a poem with a fun reference to being 'the Incredible Hulk in a thong,' lol.)

I borrowed my animal list from a Druid Animal Oracle reading I had done a few months prior.

Anyway, even though it's not particularly anthropomorphic or descriptive, I thought some of my furry friends might like it. ;-)

I am the sow
stretching my nipples to suckle
ravenously warm soft mouths.
and
I am the bull
running headlong into the meadow
because I glimpsed a crackling movement in the grass
and the earth feels good
packed and pounding under my feet.

I am the bear,
my soft feet soundlessly padding on stone;
tiny cubs trailing behind,
their furry bodies brushing mine.
and
I am the snake,
uncoiling liquid movement;
bathing for now in the warmth of the sun,
transforming into a hard flashing adversary.
I'd prefer not to bite, but I will if I have to.

No one is safe from me, for I am yin and yang.
Not duplicitous, yet not entirely trustworthy.
My boundaries and loyalties
shift and sigh in the fading twilight.
And I love with the fierce hard ball of longing
that gathers in my stomach and pushes up into my throat.

I wait alone under a cold mother moon,
snap my head up to howl and howl bereft cries
against a silent darkness.

And I am the mongrel asleep by the fire.

CAB
2002

rambling and procrastinating, all at the same time

I've been working really hard on cleaning my house today, as some people from the UU church are coming over tonight for a meeting I'm supposed to be leading. We'll see how it goes. Yet, it feels good to be somewhat productive, and my daughter has been kind enough to take a long nap this afternoon.

Okay, so I'm using part of the nap time to catch up on my lj...I still have been working a lot today. Really.

This weekend was really tough. Lots of family issues, mostly with my son, but the fact that D and I have been having our own issues as well doesn't make for a really fun mix. I kept feeling like I just wanted to run away from home *sigh*. But, we all made it through, and actually I think some of the latest parenting issues are bringing D and I closer together. I hope so, anyway.

Even under the best of circumstances, I can look up in the sky, see planes flying overhead, and wonder what it would be like to hop on one. I like the idea of having a vacation from my life.

People like me really shouldn't live so close to the airport. ;-)

A+