Transfigure My Magnolia Roots

The first Magnificent Magnolia Tree

100 million years ago even before the bees

And butterflies

After Magnolia made a pact with the beetle

Wise and lofty, Magnolia shares her wisdom

Magnolia whispers that my own roots 

Need to sink deeper into the soil

Of Mother Earth

Need to spread my roots around

Like a dancer's skirt

Weaving a lively

Web of interconnectedness

Between differentnesses and 

Transfiguring what has been 

Deep in the magnolia South

My birth cultivated by generations

Of white supremacy and classism

Hierarchies and Patriarchy

These -archies that dwell deep inside my bones

Splattered throughout my cells

Can't banish them entirely but

Can lasso them, grab them

And wrestle them to the ground

Like some of the other beliefs my 

Ancestors may have held dear 

But which I do not understand

And, do not accept

Signs at protests:

"Uproot White Supremacy

White Silence is Violence"

I need to diagnose my own bones

Explore inside the marrow and 

View the structure of this inheritance

I hear jangling in my ears when I smell

Or taste Racism

How to take effective action, a constant inquiry

This social construct, called Race, has 

Served White people throughout time

I want no slavery of any sort, no ownership 

Of people,  no incarceration of people

Just so they are made to work for free

Try that with white men and women

See how fast the swamp swallows that up

The Magnolia tree and her roots

Have survived longer than racism

By transforming and adapting 

Throughout time

So can we

My Prayer:

Transfigure our biases and our

Beliefs, uprooting and tossing

Out wicked evil and violence

Preserving tender Love, Understanding, and Compassion 

Post Election 2020

I waft in the rejoice

Breathing together with all those who breathe

Shaking my limbs together with all those who shake or shiver

Connecting with every surprise I encounter or never expected

Hoping for compassion, grace and courage.

I linger in the air as the bright yellow ginkgo leaves dance their way to the ground

I take time to smell the flowers and the coffee

I wander off the trodden path to find my joy and my comfort

Planning to see you all when I get there.

Relaxed and breathing deeply for the first time in so long

No longer as frightened as that chipmunk scurrying by

As courageous as the pale yellow cat that graces my bamboo, my dog, my deck and me

Soft and gentle again, or for the first time in so very long.

Weep no more, my ladies

Instead, let's get out the vote 

And urge all those Georgia voters

To speak loudly with their voices

To stomp bravely with their feet

To hear a resounding beginning of

The change that will rock this world.

Now, I sleep more soundly than ever before

I dream big and tiny dreams of hope, sorrow, grief and death

I imagine Rebirth now occurring

As babies and children 

Slouch their ways toward Bethlehem.*

*paraphrased from the last line of W. B Yeats' poem, The Second Coming

"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

Prayer to a Snake

---

Incredible image or magnificent mirage

Of resurrection and rebirth,

Sensual, sinuous Snake,

Once, you showed us the path

Out of the Garden, unblinking,

Clear truth and knowledge.

Charming serpent, so feared by many

Your goodness lost during our

Traumatized contemporary lives

Filled with a deadly pandemic and the

Horrific presidency of a monster.

You, Snake, are not such a reptile

As he (and his supporters)

You who predates just to eat and survive

Not just to bully or harm

Not like this preening, blathering

Traumatized human being

Who needs the camera and all 

Of our attention to make him feel.

Sensing and slithering Snake,

You shake us into our souls

Your energy so appealing

As you slide secretly inside, burrowed so

Deeply, underneath organs and arteries 

Full of Grandeur and Grace.

Snaking your delight around and

Through all of the chakras of 

These blessed bodies of ours, 

Kundalini being one of your names, 

You inspire and aspire 

To be just who you are, Snake.

You coil up to rest or before you strike

And, when you let go and blow through, 

Your excitement and hot juices

Flow like water from a firehose

Blasting open everything in your path.

Oh, sacred Snake, 

You are

I am 

We are

One

Mesmerize me while you

You wrap around and through

Squeezing me until I cannot breathe

And only then do you charge forth

Obliterating false gods and wickedness.

Thank you, Protective Snake,

You shed your skin so that we might live while

Teaching us to shed our skins, reeking of anxiety and fright

Growing new skins that smell of sweetness and light.

Swallow us whole, oh Guardian of our gates,

Create us in your image

Release yourself upon this world 

Showing us how to shift and change

So that we can evolve into 

Safe, gorgeous gardens for this earth, 

For Air, for Water,

For Plants, for Sun and Rain and

Moons and Stars, for the ground 

Upon which we walk, and for the 

Fire that keeps on burning.

Transmute our rage, our despair and our sorrow

Into a Love that knows no bounds,

So that our eyes can be wide open once again.

Bless us all, dear Snake,

Mix us into your alchemy for 

Healing and compassion,

We need you now.

The Flaming

Thundering music flares

Electrifying the paint horse’s body

Challenging her muscles to

Churn, burn, gallop, sailing westward

Flying through sacred lands of

Natives and immigrants,

Birds, animals, plants, water, and 

Mother Earth.

Initially, the woman was a passenger 

Enthralled with the mare's magnificent power

Soaring over land, rivers, and sand.

Then, horse and woman began to merge

Whirling into one being, 

Powerful thighs racing toward

The setting sun,

Immense strength, energy, passion.

Music reverberates, a cacophony of sound, 

The woman is lying on the flushed earth

Rooted to the underworld

Deep within the forest.

Crackling, pops and swooshes

Of heat flow by and then,

She witnesses the fire

She is becoming the fire 

She is the fire

Sparkling, rippling, 

Prickling and plundering, gobbling up

Every morsel of dryness possible

Flaming, burning, crinkling, torching skin,

Bits of bone, wafting with the 

Wondrous wind, lifting ashes aloft

Floating, swirling up, up, up 

Into the atmosphere,

Moving from living body to air, rising

Higher and higher

Into the sky, red, dark heat.

Fire clearing away debris, brush,

Beasts, limbs, leaves, trunks of trees,

Crispy blood sacrifices of bones and beaks, 

Claws toasted, roasted

Wiping away all sin, all ego 

All of life that lived

Before The Flaming.

After the fire blew itself out,

The horse emerged, then lay down on

The charred forest floor, her journey

Complete as she pushes her foal from her womb,

Forward into life

Full of majesty and light

Unscarred by the forest's fever.

Mother licking baby, soft and sweet

The foal comes to life, breathing in

Clear air, damp smells of birth

Opening her eyes to a new world of

Peace, pain and delight

Joyfully flexing unused muscles, 

And flawless, fresh skin. 

With her mother’s help

She stands for the very first time.