This is for you
it is my whole heart
it is the book I would have read to you
when we were old
Now I am a shadow
I am restless like an empire
You are the woman
who set me free
I have seen you gaze at the moon
You did not hesitate
to love me with it
I have seen you honor the anemones
picked among the rocks
you loved me with them
On the smooth sand
between the pebbles and the beach
you welcomed me into the circle
better still than how one welcomes a guest
All of this happened
in the truth of time
in the truth of flesh
I have seen you with a child
you brought me to his scent
and to his visions
without asking for blood
On so many wooden tables
adorned with food and candles
a thousand sacraments
that you brought in your basket
I visited my clay
I visited my birth
until I returned small
and scared enough
to be born again
I wanted you for your beauty
you gave me more than yourself
You shared your beauty
this is all I learned tonight
as I remember the mirrors
from which you disappeared
after you gave them
what they asked of you
for my initiation
Now I am a shadow
I long to
reach the end of my wandering
and I move forward
with the energy of your prayer
and I proceed
toward your prayer
for you are kneeling
like a bouquet of flowers
in a cave of bones
behind my forehead
and I move toward a love
that you dreamed for me