Sweet and Sultry Season

[Happy Solstice, my darlings.]

~*~

~*~

I stand alone in a comfortable cornfield

Dusk fills the air in sheer veils of deep indigo and light lavender

A thick perfume of night

The scent of tilled soil and sharp earth wraps around me

Like my plain red shift does now

The roaring, ruby sun has vanished

Nestled in a bed of clouds

Her golden tresses of orange flames settled

Sleeping like a lioness in hidden stars

In her place a half-moon rises

The moon that my love claims

My soulmate-it was the moon he made his vow upon

One of us in light, the other in dark

One half of Nature, one half of Chaos

Compliments, companions, joined and timeless

Bound together and inseparable

Through all the terrors of divine dreaming

And all the horrors of haunted lives

This is his moon

His

This serene, serenaded twilight

Sends me songs from some bird in a nearby tree

A mockingbird; I know its song

And I smile to myself

Unshod and whole

On this simple summer evening

~*~

The corn grows high nearby me

But I walk apart from it on the thick grass and russet soil

That browns darker by the dull dimming of the sun

I can be myself here

The farmer knows me well

For it was I who picked apples from his orchard last fall

In exchange for fanciful fairy tales

From his faraway homeland

~*~

I feel my blood move inside me

Over the tops of my arms

Like the tide drawn by my lover's moon

It is Solstice

And I know he is with me

Perhaps in the glade there

Like a spirit warrior out of legend

Made of mist and evergreens

The humming of the earth quieting fills me

Like echoes of motion in a web

My eyes are heavy

And my smile languid

I feel rich in this summer glory

The Goddess' sweet and sultry season

Of fruit, and frolic

With the fireflies, oh, the fireflies

Fortun's fireflies swirling around me

I slowly pull on a borrowed brown robe

And press my feet into the cool earth

I throw back my head and smile at the night

And I begin to dance

My song begins slow as my studious steps

A sacrament, serious as can be expected from me

Or from this holiday, for that matter

My voice lifts, a rich sound I save for him alone

A sultry-sweet and strange swarm of melody

Rising like the forest's symphony

My dancing continues and I spin

Freeing from bonds of mortality and earth

I clap and dance, call my great Mother's name

In as many tongues as I can remember

Dancing swifter and stronger, with passion and glory

Amalí, Mother, this is for You upon this hot eve

This song and this dance, this ardor I give

Pass it to my love

Wherever You may find him

Tell him I think of him

Upon this thick and thundering night with You

Amalí, Amalí, Mother divine!

I call upon You, blend Your heartbeat with mine

Dancing and singing, devotion and faith

Amalí, Amalí, take this with grace!

I dance to exaltation

Blood beating my ears

I cry out in laughter

Delighted salt tears

My beloved is free

And my good Cousins too

Oh, Amalí, Mother, I commit them to You!

Protect them, my Mother, sweet sister of Life

I cast the sacred circles, drawing my knife

I pray for companions

For Cousins and kin

I pray for my shieldmaiden

For my creatures of sin

Amalí, Amalí, of this I beg You

For this night, this one night

Grant them happiness, too!

~*~

~*~

[Amalí is Fremothan, my cradle-tongue, for mother, particular to Nature. And even if the lot of that rowdy crew is causing trouble in Líanalin or Elua knows where, I wish them a damned lot of fun to it. They deserve the happiness of this holiday and so do you. Happy Solstice, darlings.]