Yesterday I drank mare’s milk.
It was not sweet. New wine,
I wondered about the foal.
A friend wrapped silk robes around me
and I thought, Let me love that mare, the lamb,
the goat,
their cloven hooves release the smell of wild mint.
Let me travel the hills and the long green
roll of the grasses
before they are parched.
We are parting time
into different worlds
where light changes. The horses run on earth
toward hidden waters
that look like a strand of light.
I want to remain
the old person I am becoming
without things, too many to carry,
even the books with their stories of change.
Just let me do my daily chores
and walk through the painted door, standing
straight as I can until the home,
so lovely, the decorated sticks
all come down.
So many of them.
And until then all you gods and goddesses,
Buddha, Allah, Great Spirit, Ussen, Changing Woman,
if a lover takes my hand
I will think it is one of you and in the light of morning
in all our shining robes I will bow down to that one.